MUMBAI, May 26: Tournament favourites, India's Geet Sethi and England's Roxton Chapman entered the billiards semi-final of the Alpic-Om Agrawal Billiards And Snooker Tournament at the Garware Club House here.In the last quarter-final encounter, Sethi overcame a spirited effort by veteran Subhash Agrawal and managed a 1054-964 win.It was some vintage stuff by Agrawal firing breaks of 79, 88, 83, 66, 64, 64 and a century break of 129. The World No 2, Sethi also churned out some champion stuff including breaks of 71, 64, 99, 76 and 98. While Agrawal scored sub-100 breaks consistently, Sethi marvelled with two century breaks of 143 (28th visit) and 166 (32nd visit) to pip Agarwal at the post.Sethi now meets Ashok Shandilya in the semi-finals.World No 3, Chapman scored an easy 1003-566 win over India's Devendra Joshi in the quarter-final today. Though Chapman has not been at his fluent best throughout the tournament, it was Joshi's poor play which paved a path for the Briton's victory."I playedatrociously today," said Joshi after the match. "In fact I don't remember the last time that I have played so badly," he added.The only time Joshi took a lead was when a break of 60 in the first hour of play with the scores reading 183-181.But the Indian never looked in control as Chapman strengthened his hold over the match. Century breaks of 118 on the 30th visit accelerated Chapman's march. Two more breaks of 182 (44th visit) and 183 (47th visit) sealed the match in the visitor's favour."With Joshi not upto the mark, I guess the pressure was off me," accepted Chapman. "This hasn't been one of my good tournaments but today I played better," said Chapman.Chapman set up a semi-final clash with B Bhaskar who ousted Yasin Merchant 907-833, earlier in the day. Both Bhaskar and Merchant started on even keel. Bhaskar's 105 on the 23rd visit set the pace of the match and was well complemented by Merchant's 117 (32nd visit). While the game was heading to an exciting finish, a timely century break of 112on the 57th visit put Bhaskar in the driver's seat. And from there Merchant never looked in a position to catch Bhaskar.In the first match of the day, Rupesh Shah lost to snooker ace Ashok Shandilya 604-1167. The start was rather unauspicious for Shah who lost 100 valuable points to Shandilya for reaching the venue a minute late. Shandilya on the other hand started well with an early century break of 111 (4th visit). He kept on piling his score with consistent breaks of 56, 106 (28th), 102 (30th) and 106 (41st) while Shah was left lagging behind.The semi-finals are scheduled for Thursday with the snooker quarter-finals on cards tomorrow.RESULTS (Billiards QFs)B Bhaskar bt Yasin Merchant 907-833; Ashok Shandilya bt Rupesh Shah 1167-604; Roxton Chapman bt Devendra Joshi 1003-566; Geet Sethi bt Subhash Agrawal 1054-964
