Press Trust of India
Hurghada (Egypt), Nov 22: India’s most successful cueist Pankaj Advani added another feather in his cap Saturday evening by winning the IBSF World Snooker Championships 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 Bangalore’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 boy of cue sports built up a commanding 5-2 lead at the first interval. When he made it 6-2 immediately after resumption, everyone thought it was all over for Xintong. But the talented Chinese then really made his presence felt.
Xintong pulled back two frames to give Advani 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 score 6-7 and the match suddenly on was on tenterhooks.
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.
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.
Scores: Pankaj Advani beat Zhua Xintong 117-6, 75-16, 29-68, 63-23, 87-01, 16-72, 110-13, 113-01, 52-65, 13-84, 77-36, 14-126, 26-82, 116-24.
