Pankaj Advani wins World billiards

Pankaj Advani turned in a scintillating display to win the ONGC-IBSF World Billiards Points Format Championship with a comprehensive six frames to one victory over veteran Geet Sethi in the final, in Bangalore, on Friday.

The 23-year-old Bangalore-based cueist delighted the home fans at the Karnataka State Billiards Association Hall while posting a 150-90, 151-0, 150-24, 150-0, 86-150, 150-72, 150-12 triumph.

After a below-par semi-final outing Thursday, against countryman Rupesh Shah, Advani was more focused against his more experienced opponent and swept the first four frames in the morning session to take a stronghold on the match.

Though the Sethi, who has eight World billiards crowns under his belt, won the first game of the next session later in the afternoon, he could not maintain the momentum and caved in to his younger opponent.

Advani late said the “bad” semi-final spurred him to come out firing and it paid off.

“In sport, every day is a new day,” he said after the match, which promised to be an “epic” encounter but ended up one-sided.

Sethi said the inclusion of billiards in the Asian Games inspired him to continue playing the game and expressed hope that it would figure in the Olympics [Images] as well.

“I am still going strong; I still enjoy the game,” he added.

Meanwhile, the ‘Time Format’ of the ONGC IBSF World Billiards Championship gets underway at the same venue on Saturday, with the final slated for September 10.

Photograph: PTI

Source:Rediff