Advani, Sethi on course in World billiards

Leeds: Seven-time World Champion Pankaj Advani, veteran Geet Sethi and Dhruv Sitwala continued their unbeaten run in the Time Format after outplaying their rivals in the World Billiards Championships here.

Advani eased past John Hartley of England 630-294 while Sethi routed Nalin Patel 522-268 Sunday. Mumbai cueist Sitwala virtually toyed with Australia`s Neil Bolton in a 572-156 win. Another Indian in the fray Sourav Kothari from Kolkata also began his campaign by securing impressive and comfortable victories over Wayne Doyle, Phil Davis and Robin Wilson in Group I. Alok Kumar brought his campaign back on track after prevailing over David Causier of England 593-477 in a hard-fought battle in Group D. Devendra Joshi, Rupesh Shah and Siddharth Parikh also won their respective matches in the Time Format. Manish Jain also returned to winning ways after losing his second game against Australia`s Matthew Bolton Saturday, thrashing compatriot Revanna Umadevi 379-184 in Group K. In Group B, Balachandra Bhaskar defeated Rick Kendall of Canada 581-142 and then went on to win against England`s Matthew Sutton 408-260. For the first time, 18 Indian cueists are participating in the World Championship which has attracted 65 players from 15 nations. IANS