Pankaj Advani of India created history in Abu Dhabi on Sunday by winning the Asian 6 Red Snooker title. The cueist has won the IBSF World 6 Red Championship previously as well making him the first player to hold both the world and continental championships in 6 Red snooker at the same time.
His opponent in the final was top seeded Malaysian Keen Hoh Moh who was defeated 7-5 in a match that see-sawed from start to finish. Adavni started the match strongly but Keen Hoh Moh was not to be left behind and the two were going blow for blow. After six frames, Advani was ahead 4-2, before the Hoh Moh came back into the game. By the end of nine frames, Advani was leading the Malaysian by a single frame only as the match was too close to call.
But the Indian held his nerve to increase the lead to two by clinching the tenth frame 45-36. Keen Hoh Moh wasn’t giving up though as he fought back to win the 11th frame 38-15 before Advani ended the game winning the 12th frame 53-24 being crowned champion.
The 30-year-old was visibly ecstatic after his victory as he said, "It's my first individual Asian snooker championship, so the feeling is unreal. Having missed out on the 15-red Asian snooker title last month made this a mission for me to accomplish. Winning it the same year as my world title in the Six Red sends me over the moon."
Having been a billiards player before turning into a snooker professional in 2012, Advani has been extremely successful throughout his career. He has won the World, Asian and National titles in Billiards before winning the ISBF World 6 Red Snooker championship in 2014 in his debut in that discipline as well. He is the only player to ever win the professional titles of both the formats of Billiard (time and point) as well as the long and short formats of snooker (15 Red standard and 6 Red).
