Indian player Pankaj Advani rallied to win the IBSF World Billiards Championship title for a staggering 26th time, beating compatriot Sourav Kothari in the final. In the first hour, it was 26-180, and Advani succeeded in defeating the 2018 world champion Kothari 1000–416 in a rematch of last year’s title clash in Doha, Qatar.
Playing matches back-to-back, Kothari was seen to lead the game and going strong but faltered on a couple of easy chances to allow Advani to recover from the deficit. From there on, Advani took the grip of the game and turned it in his favour while Kothari could not fully capitalise on the chances he got.
Pankaj Advani – Champion of the Champions
Pankaj Advani played in a break of 214, and after that he was unstoppable. He maintained a healthy 250-point lead for a better part of the match which was only 99 before and now the difference is nearly 150. The ace from Bengaluru then switched gears to extend the lead and reach the 1000 mark with an unfinished break of 199 to end the proceedings.
Pankaj Advani on describing this feeling as “unreal” said, “I have won before also so I know this feeling of winning but to win the medal year after year is what makes all those hours of work on skill, body and mind totally worth it. To me, consistency is the hallmark of success and continuing to bring home world titles for the country is what drives me the most.”
Pankaj Advani now will participate in the next edition of the World Billiards Championship, which is the short format, 150-up. Kothari has blamed fatigue for his loss and said, “My semifinals stretched on for almost five hours and I had to play the final with just a little more than an hour’s break. So I guess I was fatigued.” Kothari further added, “I hope to make amends in the point format now which begins later in the day.”
Kothari managed to pull off a winning score of 900-756 against Dhruv Sitwala in the semi-finals which continued for about 5 hours. He had breaks of 223 and 82, while Sitwala scored 199 and 188. Advani on the other hand, defeated fellow Indian Rupesh Shah 900-273 in the other semi-finals.
Pankaj Advani won his first title in the year 2003 and is the only player globally to win world titles in all formats of both billiards and snooker has maintained his superlative level of performance to keep India on top of the world in the 3-ball game.