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Sethi storms to form in semis

India's Geet Sethi made two grand bursts, of 209 and 186, to stage a splendid rally in the first session of the semi-finals in the World Professional Billiards championship in Ahmedabad on Tuesday.

Sethi, playing against sixth ranked Briton David Causier, fell behind by more than 325 points at the end of his 12th visit but in the next, he cued a superb 209 and two visits later, another big one of 186 followed by 99 and 62 to lead by 30 points in the final score of 694-664.

Causier, who opened with 97 and 67 in his first three visits was at the table on 28 when the first half ended. Causier added three more fifty plus breaks of 95, 53 and 62 but the near fatal mistake he committed was to leave the rival ball on the top table. Sethi was lurking just for that position. He immediately pinned the white to the cushion and started his in-offs mixed with hazards. He had slight problem on his second big break while crossing the baulk line for the second time.

In the first semi-finals, Holder and world number one Mike Russell fell into the the slowly dug hole by Aussie Robbie Foldvari and was trailing by 90 points in the score of 376-466. Foldvari, after making 76 and 103 on the second and fourth visits, made 121 and 83. His slow pace made Russell quite impatient and till his eleventh visit, he had scratched 121 points. It was only after he trailed by 316 points that he woke up and strung together 51, 86 and 50 in a row which had a soothing effect on him.

Last night, Sethi overwhelmed Devendra Joshi by 1,416 points (2,190-774).In that game, Sethi had another triple hundred (394) break to claim the highest so far.

This was his second triple hundred break, in the first session of the quarter-finals Sethi had scored 209, 186, and today he added apart from 394, which he lost when a jenny jumped out of the pocket, three more hundred plus breaks of 126, 111 and 113.

UNI