The quarterfinal line-up for the 2010 Asian billiards championship features four Indians with Devendra Joshi and Dhruv Sitwala crashing out of the event after losing crucial matches against Peter Gilchrist and Ashok Shandilya respectively.
After the re-seeding, the top seed on the basis of least games lost is Rupesh Shah with Geet Sethi finishing second. Kyaw Oo of Myanmar is third and Thailand's Praprut is the fourth seed.
Despite scoring a 3-2 victory against Myanmar's Kyaw, Joshi failed to qualify for the knockout stage due to a tame 0-3 defeat at the hands of Peter Gilchrist from Singapore. From a position of relative strength, Joshi, a former winner of this event was edged out by Gilchrist as the No. 2 of Group B with Kyaw emerging at pole position in the group.
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Gilchrist needed to beat Joshi by a 3-1 margin to oust the Indian — not an easy task considering the ability of the Indian and his experience on the circuit. However, an inexcusable error from Joshi in missing a red pot into the top pocket on 87 provided Gilchrist the opportunity to win the opening game. More importantly the relief of winning that game injected an additional dose of adrenaline into the 6'5” cueist who, performed admirably from then on to win the contest without losing a game.
Sitwala crashes out
Dhruv Sitwala crashed out of the event predominantly because of his 3-2 reversal at the hands of compatriot Ashok Sandilya, who compiled a praiseworthy 71 unfinished to win the deciding game. The former Asian Games double gold medallist then went on to lose 3-0 against Praprut of Thailand. Shandilya therefore finished second in group C.
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Quarterfinal line-up: Rupesh Shah (India) vs. Peter Gilchrist (Singapore); Praprut (Thailand)vs. Thawat (Thailand); Kyaw Oo (Myanmar) vs. Ashok Shandilya (India); Geet Sethi(India) vs. Pankaj Advani(India)
The results:
Group A: Surya Suwannasinh (Thailand) bt Nguyen Trung Kien (Vietnam) 3-0 (100-86, 101(85)-77, 101-38); Rupesh Shah (India) bt Nguyen Trung Kien (Vietnam) 3-0 (100-26, 100(60)-69, 100-60).
Group B: Peter Gilchrist (Singapore) bt Devendra Joshi (India) 3-0 (100(65)-87, 100(86)-05, 100(93)-20)); Devendra Joshi (India) bt Lee Eric (Hong Kong) 3-0 (101(51)-22, 101(48)-28, 100(49)-32); Peter Gilchrist (Singapore) bt Nguyen Thanh Binh) 3-0 (100-07, 102-06, 104-46).
Group C: Ashok Shandilya (India) bt Dhruv Sitwala) 3-2 (25-100(68), 100(87)-49, 100(94)-00, 69(50)-102(64), 100(71)-57); Praput Chaithanasakun (Thailand) bt Ashok Shandilya (India) 3-0 (102-35, 100(82)-87(53), 100(90)-61).
Group D: Geet Sethi (India) bt Ng Yam Shui (Hong Kong) 3-1 (75-101(49), 101(81)-35, 100-22, 100-47); Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (Thailand) bt Nguyen Thanh Long (Vietnam) 3-1 (19-101(63), 100(92)-00, 100-66, 100-38)
Geet Sethi (India) bt Nguyen Thanh Long (Vietnam) 3-0 (101(52)-66, 100-27, 100-33)
Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (Thailand) bt Pauk Sa (Myanmar) 3-0 (100(63)-11, 101(66)-00, 100(71)-88(72))