Pankaj Advani lift fourteenth world title

Adelaide: India’s most successful cueist Pankaj Advani on Sunday added another feather to his cap by winning the IBSF World billiards championship after outplaying his opponent in the final to take his world title count to 14 here.

Advani, 30, left the spectators spellbound with his prolific play and mastery over the 3-ball game, demolishing Singapore’s Peter Gilchrist by 1168 points.

Meanwhile in the under-21 event, S. Shrikrishna defeated Ishpreet Chadha, the National u-21 champion, to lift the crown and the Indian sweep was completed when India’s Arantxa Sanchis finished on top, over compatriot R. Umadevi in the women’s event.

On lifting his 14th world crown in style, Advani said: “I was determined to get even with Peter (Gilchrist) after losing the points format final to him. A productive chat with my sports psychologist brother Shree and a good night’s sleep did the trick. We discussed my strategies and mental approach the night before the big final and it all panned out perfectly.”

Bengaluru’s ‘Golden Boy’ was in roaring form and appeared keen to not only defend his Time format world title but also avenge his loss of the Point format championship to Gilchrist, which happened less than a week ago.

In the opening visit, Advani fired in a quick century (127) to take the initial lead. Failing to capitalise, Gilchrist handed over an opportunity to the Indian star and it was taken advantage of. The 2015 6-red snooker world champion showed his fine prowess in billiards by smashing in two back-to-back triple centuries (360 and 301), making the match a foregone conclusion in the first hour itself.

With a comfortable 700-point lead, India’s posterboy of cuesport



continued to add insult to injury with breaks of 284, 119, 101 and 106 in quick succession to extend his lead by 1100 points at the halfway mark of the 5-hour final.

On resumption in the second half, Advani continued to punish his opponent with two more centuries but a spirited fightback by the Singaporean in the form of a big double century (284) along with a couple more centuries reduced his deficit.

But Advani was not quite done yet. He continued his devastating form with some aggressive scoring.  The last nail in the coffin was a fluent and flawless 430 break that was unfinished as the match reached the end of its 300 minutes duration.

Advani has stamped his authority in billiards at the world level for a few years now. After annihilating England’s Mike Russell in the final of the 2012 edition of the Time format, Advani went on to win twin titles in both Point and Time formats in 2014.

The champion further added: “I’ve been on the move in the last couple of months competing in many tournaments back-to-back, in both snooker and billiards.

“The stint started with winning the world 6-red snooker championship and ended with this world title in billiards making it a very satisfying phase of the year for me.”

The results:

Men (final): Pankaj Advani bt Peter Gilchrist 2408-1240. Breaks: Pankaj Advani (127, 360, 301, 284, 124, 101, 106, 171, 114, 430*). Peter Gilchrist (102, 156, 249, 107, 198); Semifinals: Gilchrist bt Siddharth Parikh 1,438-1122; Advani bt Rupesh Shah 1,724-1036; Quarterfinals: Gilchrist bt Dhruv Sitwala 1,058-718; Parikh bt Alok Kumar 835-675; Rupesh bt Sourav Kothari 659-528; Advani bt Brijesh Damani 1,426-838.