Advani pockets 15th world title
HURGHADA (EGYPT): India’s most successful cueist Pankaj Advani on Saturday added another feather in his cap by winning the IBSF World Snooker Championship after battling past his Chinese opponent Zhua Xintong in the final to take his world title count to 15.
Advani, 30, once again mesmerised the green baize to prevail over the teenage sensation 8-6 in the best-of-15 final at Sunrise Crystal Bay resort here.
The victory for Bengaluru’s ‘Golden Boy’ comes just after he clinched the IBSF Billiards crown in September. He is also the first person in history to take the short (6-Red) and the long snooker format in the same calender year.
India’s poster of cuesport, who led 5-2 in the first session, looked unstoppable against his talented opponent even after the break, but was tested by the 18-year-old cueist in a match which saw top snooker at display.
Leading 6-2 after the break, Advani’s march was halted by Xintong when he pulled back two frames to give the champion cueist a taste of his own medicine.
Advani held his nerve to make it 7-4, but the youngster wasn’t done yet. Xintong went ballistic in the next two frames to make the multiple world champion eat humble pie and a match was on at 7-6.
Xintong drew first blood in the 14th frame, but Advani dug deep into his reservoir of experience to finish the tournament in style with a century break of 109.
This was Advani’s first 15-Red Snooker title since 2003 when he won the crown in China. Though Egypt proved lucky for the champion, who had won his first 6-Red world title here last year.
Earlier, Advani had started the match by capturing the first two frames with breaks of 106 and 56 in the first and the second respectively against the 18-year- old Chinese cueist.
Xintong took the third with a break of 53 and looked in total control of the fourth when he got trapped by a deadly snooker behind the brown ball. Unable to convert the snooker, Xintong gave Advani a half chance at the top end which was immediately punished with a spectacular opening red stun pot along the top cushion.
Advani thereafter took a 3-1 lead.
A deadly safety play by Advani once again put Xintong glued to his seat as India’s posterboy of cue sport kept trapping the teenager inside the baulk line to get openings and went ahead by 4-1.