Sethi, Foldvari blaze into semi-final

AHMEDABAD, Sept 28: Geet Sethi and Robby Foldvari blazed into the semi-finals of the 1998 Florsheim World Professional Billiards Champion...

AHMEDABAD, Sept 28: Geet Sethi and Robby Foldvari blazed into the semi-finals of the 1998 Florsheim World Professional Billiards Championship, alongwith Mike Russell and David Causier, who overcame tough encounters at the Hotel Fortune Landmark here on Monday.

Sethi ran all over Devendra Joshi, crushing him by 1416 points, notching seven centuries including a 213 and a 394. In the first session of the quarter-finals, Sethi was trailing Joshi by 100 points. However, he raced ahead with a break of 213, and with further breaks of 196 and 175 on successive visits consolidated his position, ending the session at 997-313.On his very first visit in the second session Geet came up with a 126 and followed that up with 111, 113 and 394 to win 2190-774.

Sethi said he felt even better after his second match and was confidence personified saying: 8220;somebody would have to play really well to beat me8221;.

Birthday boy Chris Shutt put up a valiant fight against Russell and was trailing by a thin margin of 119 points atthe end of the first session, in which he had breaks of 144, 166, 162 and an unfinished one of 106, which he converted to 127 in the next session.

But Russell, scintillating as usual, jumped into top gear with successive breaks of 399 and 198, to take a massive lead of over 500 and in the last hour Shutt was never the same again. Russell finished with an amazing average of 81.1

He was all praise for Shutt: 8220;Chris played so well he should be in the top five. I really took a battering today, and I8217;m not used to it.8221;The mercurial Causier, ranked 6, upset No 3 Peter Gilchrist, for a 1401-1204 victory. Though Causier didn8217;t have a single century in the second session, and only one in the first, he consistently got 50s and 60s and that made all the difference.

Gilchrist was trailing by only 42 points at the half-way stage and though he got 163 and 152 in the second session, he was too inconsistent and missed an awful lot of opportunities.

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Foldvari, leading Roxton Chapman by 514 points at the end of thefirst session, increased the margin in the next half to post an easy 1254-668 win.Earlier in the third round matches, Sethi defeated Subhash Agrawal 1676-994 and Joshi beat Rupesh Shah 1382-1109, while Foldvari defeated Michael Ferreira 1269-598 and Chapman beat Ian Williamson 755-703 to enter the quarter-finals.

Ferreira lost to Foldvari, the only Australian in the championship, 598-1269 without a century against Foldvari8217;s three. Explaining the defeat later, Ferreira said, 8220;At the moment I am in the wilderness, It8217;s a mental block I8217;m facing, trying to play against the memories of myself. Even against a mediocre player my confidence deserts me. It8217;s something I have to work out.8221;

About his retirement, he said, 8220;the theory that one must retire when one is at the peak is an incredibly self-centred one. My love for the game remains undiminished, which is why I continue to play it. I8217;m not afraid of losing. I8217;m only afraid of not living up to my own expectations.8221;

Doordarshan metro channel will coverthe semi-finals and finals live on Tuesday and Wednesday. A special digital signal processing technique is being used in the three state-of-the-art cameras and the picture quality, a press release said on Monday, would be much superior.