Defending champion Pankaj Advani came one step closer towards registering a hat-trick of titles, beating Myanmar's Kyaw Oo 5-3 in the semi-finals of the Asian Billiards championship in Indore, on Wednesday.
Advani will face Singapore's Peter Gilchrist, whom he had beaten in the final in Pune last year, in the best-of-11-frames final on Thursday.
Gilchrist had to go through a tough time to prevail over Praput Chaithanasakun of Thailand 5-4 in the other semi-final played at the Yashwant Sports Club.
Advani quelled some early challenge from Kyaw Oo before beating his opponent (100 (64)-14, 18-100 (91), 100-07, 63-100, 19-101, 102 (102)-8, 101 (63)-0, 100 (89)-32).
In the quarter-finals, Advani had edged past eight-time world billiards champion Geet Sethi 4-3 (76-102 (76), 0-100 (77), 104 (104)-0, 45-101, 100-57, 100-44, 102 (55)-71).
