Doha: India cueist Pankaj Advani won the IBSF World Billiards Championship title at the La Maison Hotel in Doha yesterday for a staggering 26th time, beating fellow Indian cueist Sourav Kothari in the final.
Advani defeated Kothari 1000–416 in a rematch of last year’s title clash in Kuala Lumpur. He had won his first world title in this competition way back in 2005.
While Advani has won the ‘long format’ for the ninth time, he triumphed in the ‘point format’ championship on eight occasions, besides winning the World Team Billiards Championship once. In this tournament, Advani defeated fellow Indian cueist Rupesh Shah 900-273 in the semi-finals. It saw breaks of 259 and 176 from the defending champion, while Shah managed a 62 break only in the 900-up format. In the other half of the draw, Kothari pulled off a close win against Dhruv Sitwala, prevailing 900-756 in his semi-final match. Kothari had breaks of 223 and 82, while Sitwala scored 199 and 188.
Meanwhile, the Women’s World Snooker Championship was claimed by China’s Bai Yulu. She beat Ng On-Yee of Hong Kong 4-0 in the final match. The third place medals went to the India’s Amy Kamani and Vidya Pillai.
In the World Masters Snooker Championship, Bahraini Habib Sabah was crowned the champion. He defeated Emirati Mohamed Shehab 5-4, while Indians Komal Chawla and Manan Chandra won third place medals.
Pankaj Advani
