Sitwala, Parikh out of Australian Open billiards

Indian cueists Siddharth Parikh and Dhruv Sitwala lost their respective semifinal matches, ending their courageous campaigns at the Australian Open Billiards Championship at the Yarraville Club here today.
The left-handed Sitwala, who defeated Todd Hayward 4-2 in the quarterfinals yesterday, was outplayed by Mathew Bolton of Australia 1-5 in the best-of-nine semifinals.
Former Railways champion Parikh, who got the better of Australia's Steve Mifsud 4-2 in the last-eight clash, surrendered meekly to Singapore cueist Peter Gilchrist 5-0.
Playing superb billiards, Gilchrist notched up a highest tournament break of 154 equalling Devendra Joshi's effort, who had earlier lost to Britain-born Gilchrist in the quarterfinals.

Other Indians in the fray lost out in the last-16 stage when Dhvaj Haria was done in by Hayward and V Subramanian lost to Bolton.