Blue Eyed Boy of Billiards
To look at his lanky frame with a mop full of hair flopping around his head, one would not guess this teenage looking fellow is in fact a twenty seven year old Billiards champion and snooker player. I am talking about none other than Pankaj Advani, the ace billiards player and not the Bollywood movie director. Snooker and billiards are indoor sports that are just making its way into the world. As a matter of fact, the first ever united World Billiards Championship was held on 17th October 2012, where nearly 65 of the world’s best players gathered together to battle it out at the green baize.
The winner of the tournament was our own Pankaj Advani who beat the world defending champion Mike Russell in the finals to clinch the World Billiards title. Incidentally this was his eighth world title and seventh in billiards. It just proves to you that he is by no means a novice in this field of games but has been around for more than a decade, just biding his time and slowly but effectually working his way to the top.
Advani won his very first title at the tender age of twelve and has gone on to reap many more plaudits at state and national level since then. He won his first national Junior Billiards Championship in 2000 and proceeded to defend his title in 2001. The year 2003 reaped manifold benefits as he not only won the Junior Billiards Championship but also the Junior Snooker Championship, at the age of eighteen. His international debut came in the year of 2002 at the Asian Billiards Championship. Though he ended up as the runner up, it was a huge confidence booster for Advani. The next tournament he was victorious at was the 2005 International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF) World Billiards Championship held at Qawra, Malta. He proceeded to win the same tile in 2008 at the championship held in Bangalore, India. The following year, he was victorious at the World Professional Billiards title (WPBSA) held at Leeds. He took Mike Russell to the cleaners that day with his 800 point lead.
The year 2012 saw an even better performance in Pankaj Advani profile. Not only did he win the Asian Billiards Championship in Goa to become the first player in Billiards history to secure 5 Asian Titles but he also won his seventh billiards title at the World Billiards championship.
