Defending champion Kothari enters World Billiards finals

Defending champion Sourav Kothari on Friday continued his spectacular show to outperform multiple-time world champion Mike Russell of England in the semifinal and book his second consecutive World Billiards (long-up) final here.

Such was Kothari's dominance in the game that with 45 minutes remaining on the clock in the four-hour semi-final, Russell conceded the match apparently due to not having enough time remaining for him to overcome the huge deficit of nearly 600 points.

In the end, Kothari prevailed 1090-594 with breaks of 205, 195, 175, 128 and 103, whereas Russell made breaks of 247, 131 and 121.

The key highlight of the semifinal which gave Kothari a huge push and rattled Russell was a break of 195 in reply to a break of 247 by virtue of which the Kolkata lad brought parity in the scoreline just before the mid-session interval.

From the very beginning in the second session, it was Kothari all the way as he went on a rampage with successive blows of 205, 175 and 103 in a matter of just over an hour to take a huge lead of nearly 600 points, reducing Russell to a mere spectator.

Eventually Russell conceded the match with still 45 minutes remaining and complimented Kothari for his extraordinary display of high quality Billiards.

In the quarterfinal earlier in the day, Kothari sailed past Rob Hall of England 1076-484 with breaks of 141, 135, 242 and 121.

On Saturday, Kothari will meet Peter Gilchrist of Singapore in a repeat of last year's world billiards final.

Gilchrist defeated David Causier 1183-1023 in the other semifinal.