Calcutta/Karachi: India's poster boy of cue sports, Pankaj Advani, on Tuesday clinched his 13th world title after winning the World 6-Red Snooker Championship, in a convincing manner in Karachi.
Defending champion 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], stamping his authority on the green baize in the final.
The final started off with a bang with the Bangalore cueist racing to a rapid 3-0 lead in the best-of-11 final. But the Chinese found his form and ran away with the next two frames with the aid of a 66 break.
In no mood to give anything away, Advani did not allow his opponent to score a single point in the next two. He fired in a massive 71 break in the seventh frame to be one frame away from defending his title, which he won in Egypt last year.
In the final frame, Bingtao took a healthy 28-5, lead before missing what was going to be his final shot of the tournament as Advani cleared the table with finesse. A 35 break saw the Indian ace adding another feather in his ever-glowing crown.
After the victory, Advani tweeted: "Successfull... defended my 6 Red World Title :) can't describe the feeling right now! Thanks for all your wishes and love."
"It's a great feeling to successfully defend my title, snooker is such an unpredictable game" Advani was quoted as saying by Karachi's The Express Tribune newspaper.
The losing finalist, Bingtao, was also upbeat, despite being at the receiving end of an Advani masterclass. "I didn't even think I'd reach the final," he said. "I just came into this tournament hoping to learn and gain as much practice as I can in order to be ready for the professional circuit next year. It was great playing in Pakistan."
Earlier in the day, Advani was pushed in the semi-finals by Pakistan's Asjad Iqbal, who led the match 0-2 initially, only for the defending champion to come from behind and take the match at 5-4 (04-51, 07-56, 46-0, 36-01, 40-14, 10-53, 39-17, 0-59, 52-14).
"There are good days and bad days and mine was the latter," Asjad said. "I wanted to give the people of Pakistan a gift just before August 14. I apologise to everyone that I was unable to do so. The team event starts on Wednesday and we'll try to win that now."
Hong Kong's Ng On-Yee beat India's Vidya Pillai 5-2 in the final to claim the women 6-Red world championships. The 24-year-old was understandably delighted. "I'm absolutely over the moon," stated an elated On-Yee.
"I felt very nervous even though I've won this tournament before because Vidya is a very good player." On-Yee defeated top-seed Amee Kamani of India 4-1 in the semi-final.
