Bangalore, Sep 1 (UNI) Defending Champion Rupesh Shah tasted an upset defeat, while world Billiards Champion Pankaj Advani clinched a berth in the pre-quarterfinals with his second successive win in the ONGC IBSF World Billiards Championship (Point Format) here today.
Shah, who had an easy win against Sri Lanka cueist S M Shaharwardi in the first round, failed to maintain the tempo and went down to former Asian champion Devender Joshi 3-1 in the second match.
However, Shah's advance to last 16 looks certainas he is expected to put it across Dronacharya award winner Arvind Savur in the third and final league match tomorrow.
In the match that lasted more than 105 minutes Joshi had to sweat it out as Shah did not give up. Joshi had break of 91 in the first frame and at 101 in the second, while Shah had a break of 83in the the third frame.Joshi defeated Shah 151-141, 151-74, 2-150, 150-2.
The 23 year-old Bangalore lad Pankaj, maintaining his superb touch, earned a straight win against Suriya Suwannasingh of Thailand 3-0 to take his pre-quarter final berth with two successive wins.
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