Geet Sethi scrapes into semi-finals

Reigning World champion Geet Sethi of Gujarat escaped from the jaws of defeat to win his quarter-final encounter against Dhruv Sitwala of Railways by only four points in the Senior National billiards championship 2002, being played at the Gujarat Sports Club, in Ahmedabad, on Wednesday.

Sethi won 643 - 639

At one stage, Sethi, who has the World title seven times, was leading by almost 150 points when suddenly tables turned in favour of Sitwala, who hammered two consecutive century breaks. However, in the dying moments of the match, Sethi had a break of 13 to book his place in the semi-finals.

Sethi scored only one century break -- of 178 points -- on his 15th visit while Dhruv scored three century -- of 102, 102, and 131 -- in the 20th, 21st and 39th visits respectively.

In another quarter-final match, Ashok Shandilya of Railways fired his guns with a double century and four century breaks to beat Mukesh Rehani of Delhi by more than 600 points.

Shandilya had breaks of 191, 211, 100, 136 and 150.

Defending champion Devendra Joshi of Maharashtra also cruised into the semi-finals, surpassing seasoned Rafat Habib of Railways by almost 400 points. Joshi also had two century breaks -- of 100 and 103 points.

Quarter-finals results:

Devendra Joshi (Maharashtra) beat Rafat Habib (Railways) 1071-749
Ashok Shandilya (Railways) beat Mukesh Rehani (Delhi 1385-542
Geet Sethi (Gujarat) beat Dhruv Sitwala (Railways) 643-639
Alok Kumar (Punjab) beat Pankaj Advani (Karnataka) 887-738