World Billiards Championship: Pankaj Advani wins 26th title

Doha: Pankaj Advani, an Indian cueist, overcame fellow countryman Sourav Kothari in the final to win the IBSF World Billiards Championship here on Tuesday for an incredible 26th time. Rematching their title match from last year in Kuala Lumpur, Advani overcame a first-hour loss of 26-180 to overcome 2018 world champion Kothari 1000–416, securing the victory.

Playing back-to-back matches, Kothari took the initial lead and was going strong but faltered on a couple of easy chances to allow Advani recover from the deficit, PTI reported.

From there, it got a little scrappy with both players exchanging visits between them and a couple of 150-plus breaks by Advani helped him stretch the lead while Kothari could not fully capitalise on the chances he got.

Advani fired in a break of 214, the highest of the match, and looked unstoppable after that. He maintained a healthy 250-point lead for a better part of the match. A 99 from Kothari brought the difference down to 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.

Describing the feeling as 'unreal', Advani said: "I have won before so I know how it feels, but to repeat it year on 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."

Advani will get no rest as he participates in the next edition of the World Billiards Championship, which is the short format, 150-up. Kothari blamed fatigue for squandering his early lead. "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 said. "I hope to make amends in the point-format now which begins later in the day," he added.

Kothari pulled off a close win against Dhruv Sitwala, prevailing 900-756 in a gruelling semi-final that stretched for about five 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. It saw breaks of 259 and 176 from the defending champion, while Shah managed a 62 break only in the 900-up format.

Advani won his first world title in 2003. 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. 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.