Sethi reaches quarterfinals of World Snooker Championship

Hyderabad: Ace Indian cueist Geet Sethi pulled off a stunning win over Chuchart Trairattanapradit of Thailand to enter the quarterfinals of ONGC-IBSF World Snooker Championship here on Saturday.

A perfect blend of tactics and clinical potting saw Sethi bounce back from a difficult position and beat Chuchart 4-3 in a best of seven encounter in the masters category at the International Convention Centre here. Down 1-3 against Chuchart after the first four frames, Sethi got his act together and engaged in some superb potting and cushion work to bounce back into contention. In the last two frames, Sethi unfolded his vast repertoire of strokes to outwit his opponent.In the men’s event, India’s R Girish outclassed 2007 Indoor Asian games gold medalist Mohd Shehab of UAE to reach the round of 32.Aditya Mehta blanked Chan Ka Kin of Hong Kong 4-0, while local lad Lucky Vatnani registered a commendable 4-1 win over Lim Chun Kiat of Singapore to reach the second round. On Friday, in the ladies category, Chitra Magimairaj beat Nicha Pathom Eakmongkhon of Thailand 4-2 to reach the quarterfinals. Meenal Thakur is the other Indian in the quarters of the women’s event. However, Vidya Pillai of India squandered her early advantage of 3-1 lead to go down against Kathy Parashis of Australia after a marathon pre-quarterfinal match that lasted five hours. PTI