Fortune smiles on Indians in World Billiards

Indian billiards stalwarts continue to make their mark in the ongoing IBSF World Billiards Championships in Christchurch in New Zealand with most of them living up to their high seedings.

Six-times world billiards champion Geet Sethi scored a massive break of 471 in a weekend win over Joe Millen of Australia that put him at the top of group one.

Nalin Patel and Balchandra Bhaskar are leading the pack in group two with four wins apiece. In group three Ashok Sandilya and Alok Kumar are still unbeaten.

Another Indian, Manoj Kothari, is sharing the top spot in group five with Australian Mathew Bolton.

India's Arun Agarwal is also likely to qualify for the final 16 as he has scored three wins in his section. But he is yet to play unbeaten Australian Paul Mifsud.

Unseeded 28-year-old Indian Dhruv Sitwala caused an upset by beating Indian national champion and fourth seed Devendra Joshi. Joshi is now under pressure to qualify for the quarterfinals.

In a closely contested encounter, Sitwala came from behind at 535-711 to finally win the game at 1269-1201. Sitwala leads his group with four wins.

The quarterfinalists will be arrived at after the remaining two days' group encounters.