A resurgent Varun Taneja almost managed to beat Sethi before the former dug his own grave at the end to go down 874-1007 in the billiards quarter-final of the Alpic Om Agrawal Billiards and Snooker Tournament at the Garware Club House today.

Sethi won the toss and started with the yellow. But it was the white cue ball which did most of the scoring in the early part of the three-hour session. Even as the Ahmedabad pro struggled for breaks, Taneja slammed a century break in only his sixth visit to race ahead of Sethi. The break of 159, which ended after Taneja played out of position, was followed by another sizeable 85 as the Delhi cueist led Sethi by little less than 200 points.

The challenge thrown by Taneja managed to shake Sethi as he registered breaks of 83, 100 and 89. While Sethi's brilliance came only in spurts,Taneja managed to lead the former with small but consistent breaks.

In between Sethi cracked a break of 166 on his 37th visit to take a marginal lead but with points coming to him only at a premium, Taneja managed to sneak ahead.

It was in the last half-hour than Taneja managed to undo all the good work done by him earlier. The pressure of the three-hour contest finally got him as he looked in a hurry to finish the match. He erred on numerous occasions in quite a contrast to his display todate in the tournament. A break of 62 on his 45th visit again put Sethi in the lead and this time he was lucky to maintain it till the alarm signalled the end.

Sethi now takes on Nalin Patel in the first semi-final scheduled for Thursday. Patel outplayed formidable Devendra Joshi 1214-670 in a quarter-final encounter.

The other semi-final pits Ashok Shandilya against Peter Gilchrist of the United Kingdom. While the latter beat Arun Agrawal 1130-697, Shandilya managed to quell a strong challenge by Thailand's CPraprut.

The Asiad double gold medallist won the toss and cracked a break of 78 on his first visit. But he struck a barren patch from there onwards as Praprut sneaked past him.

After trailing the Thai throughout the match and with time running out, Shandilya blasted an explosive 154 in just 10 minutes and then followed it up with another century break of 118 to put himself in the driver's seat. Not the one to take things lying down, Praprut did manage to bring down the margin. But breaks of 89 and a fighting 63 on his final visit proved insufficient as he fell short of time.

At the time of going to the press, Shandilya was battling another cracker with defending champion Yasin Merchant in a snooker quarter-final encounter while qualifier Rishabh Thukral took on Sarang Shroff.

Billiards SF line-up

Geet Sethi vs Nalin Patel; Peter Gilchrist vs Ashok Shandilya

RESULTS (QF)

Billiards: Ashok Shandilya bt C Praprut (Thai) 821-768; Peter Gilchrist (UK) bt Arun Agrawal 1130-697; NalinPatel bt Devendra Joshi 1214-670; Geet Sethi bt Varun Taneja 1007-874.