Joe Grech reached the quarter-finals of the world billiards championship yesterday after defeating former world champion Paul Mifsud 4-2 in the last 16 stage.

In the earlier qualifying rounds, Paul Mifsud and Joe Grech made their way into the last 16. Grech won Group C, winning all his three matches against Mark Boyle, Roy Lattimer and Aidan Murray. Paul Mifsud finished second in Group E losing one match against Group winner Geet Sethi of India and winning the remaining two.

Alex Borg, Pullu Grech and Frans Mintoff failed to qualify, Borg, finishing third in Group D and Grech and Mintoff finishing fourth in their respective groups.

Other qualifiers from the Last 16 round were Matthew Bolton, Alok Kumar, Devendra Joshi, Pankaj Advani, Robby Foldvari and Geet Sethi.

The quarter-finals and the semi-finals are being played today.