Sitwala goes down to Gilchrist, settles for silver medal at Pan Am Cup billiards

India’s Dhruv Sitwala, the reigning Asian billiards champion, came up short in the final of the Pan Am Cup billiards championships, losing 972-1500 to Singapore’s Peter Gilchrist in Winnipeg, Canada, on Monday night.

Despite starting in rousing fashion, the southpaw from Mumbai ended up on the wrong end of the scoreline. Up by about 450 points in the initial stages of the final, Sitwala let slip the advantage and let his famed rival off the hook.

Sitwala, who defeated Gilchrist in the New Zealand Open final two years ago, has struggled against his Singaporean rival in recent times. It was no different on Monday as Gilchrist, after a slow start, came up with three double-century breaks in quick succession to race ahead.

The Indian ace, a four-time World runner-up, did get a few chances but failed to capitalize on them. Gilchrist then made an unfinished 214 break to emerge a runaway winner.

Results: Final: Peter Gilchrist (Sin) 1500 (102, 207, 239, 208, 214 unf.) beat Dhruv Sitwala (Ind) 972 (101, 102, 81, 70, 176, 96, 80).

Semifinals: Sitwala 1002 (73, 357, 150, 98, 104) beat Robert Hall (GBR) 525 (104); Gilchrist bt Ryan Mears (GBR) 1002-188.

Quarterfinals: Sitwala 800 (77, 292, 90, 108, 161 unf.) beat Phil Johnson (GBR) 121.

Pre-quarterfinals: Sitwala 500 (70, 118, 51, 51) beat Aonghus McAnally (Ire) 167.

Gulati loses too Putra in Malaysia

Meanwhile, Sundeep Gulati, India’s top pool player, went down fighting 60-80 in the round of 32 to Indonesia’s Gebby Putra in the Malaysian International Open Duya Golden 9-Ball pool event late on Tuesday.

Gulati, who had defeated reigning Asian heyball champion Yip Kin Ling of Hong Kong 60-29 in the round of 64, seemed to be running away with the match after taking a 40-point lead at one stage.

However, the Indonesian cueist got lucky with a few breaks towards the closing stages of the WPA-ranking event to turn the 40-point deficit into a gritty 80-60 victory.