Adelaide: Pankaj Advani added another feather to his cap by winning the IBSF World Billiards Championship, outplaying his opponent in the final to take his world title count to 14, here, on Sunday.
Advani, 30, left the spectators spellbound with his prolific play and indisputable mastery over the 3-ball game, demolishing Singapore’s Peter Gilchrist by 1168 points.
On lifting his 14th world crown in style, Advani, who’s established himself as the most successful cueist India has ever produced, said: “I was determined to get even with Peter after losing the point-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. It’s been a very satisfying phase of the year for me.”
He also tweeted: “World Billiards trophy in my hands:) Absolutely thrilled to win the Arthur Walker trophy!”
Bangalore’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 under 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 full advantage of. Advani, the 6-red snooker world champion this year, 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, the country’s cuesport king continued to add insult to Gilchrist’s injury with breaks of 284, 119, 101 and 106 in quick succession to extend his lead to 1100 points at the halfway mark of the five-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-minute duration.
Advani has stamped his authority yet again in billiards at the world level, as his rule continues for some years now. After annihilating England’s Mike Russell in the final of 2012 edition of the time format, Advani went on to win twin titles in both point and time formats last year.
The champion further added: “I’ve been on the move 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 year for me.”
Advani started the year off with a bang, securing his fourth double in the national meet, at the Bengal Rowing Club in Calcutta. It was his first since 2009.
“With every passing year, I feel achieving the double is getting tougher with so many specialists in billiards and snooker. But I'm somewhere in between. So, I'm glad that I remained unbeaten,” Advani had said after the triumph.
“Mind you, Pankaj has to deal with the expectation of coming out on top every time, which only adds to the pressure. Inspite of that, he has prevailed over everything, which is a hallmark of a great sportsman,” his coach Arvind Savur said some time back.
His 13th world title came last month in Karachi - on August 11 - when being the defending champion of World 6-red snooker meet, Advani outplayed Chinese Yan Bingtao 6-2 [37-21, 57(30)-0, 32-29, 0-66(66), 6-38(37), 48-0, 75(71)-0, 40(35)-28] in the final.
(Agencies)
