What’s the story?
Ace cueist Pankaj Advani completely dominated the proceedings at the finals of the Indian National Snooker Championship where he pole-axed E. Pandurangaiah of the Railways 6-0 on Thursday in Pune. Advani’s opponent seemed to be clueless and out-of-sorts in front of the champion player, against whom he was competing for the very first time.
Advani managed to notch up five half-century breaks despite a very long second frame due to the slow approach and safety tactics of Pandurangaiah.
Post the win, Advani did go on to praise the run of his fellow finalist, when he was quoted as saying to The Hindu that, “He (Pandurangaih) has been phenomenal. This is his second Nationals and he reached the final.”
In case you didn’t know...
With this victory, Advani claimed his 29th national title and in the process also broke numerous records. He completed the rare triple to become the only Indian male cueist to hold all national billiards and snooker titles at the same time- Billiards, 6-red Snooker and 15-red Snooker.
Another statistic that he built up for himself with the win was the fact that this was his eighth National snooker title and a fifth double (billiards and snooker).
Heart of the Matter
Taking part in his only second national championships, Pandurangaiah had raised expectations after defeating strong players like Malkeet Singh in the semi-finals and Arvind Kumar in the quarter-finals. However, in the final face-off against Pankaj Advani, he offered no match to his opponent who put up a fantastic showcase of skills, precision and domination alike.
The man from Bengaluru ensured that Pandurangaiah had no chance whatsoever with a scoreline that read, 6-0: 83(50)-1, 52-34, 76(75)-0, 65(64)-18, 82(50)-25, 79(78)-28 in the best-of-11 final.
Also Read: Pankaj Advani: One man, two sports and 16 world titles
What next?
It has been announced that for the next four years India will be the host nation for the World Billiards Championship, thus giving all our home-grown cueists the perfect opportunity to excel in favourable and familiar home conditions. While on the other hand, the National Championship will be held in Vishakhapatnam next year.
Sportskeeda’s take
Only last week, Pankaj Advani had expressed his displeasure over the issue that he was snubbed for the Padma Bhushan award. The 16-time world champion was recommended as a recipient of the award by the State of Karnataka and the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India (BSFI) but did not make the cut.
Subsequently, he took to Twitter to voice his emotions and rightly so. Given the title and accolades he has fetched for the country over the years, Pankaj Advani deserves the recognition which has been bestowed upon athletes in the past. With this title, he yet again proved a point, that he is by far the greatest cueist to have represented India, thus making his case stronger.
