Pankaj Advani went down fighting in the IBSF World Snooker Championship at Doha, losing 2-7 in his semi-finals clash against Wales' Andrew Pagett as he eventually settled for a bronze medal. After a four hour mammoth battle in the quarterfinals, Advani finally edged past Thailand's Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon defeating him 6-5 as he guaranteed an Indian medal and his fixture against the Welsh.
Defending champion, Advani, however, did not look at ease during his semi-final match as his opponent Andrew made it sure to keep up the pressure and the Welsh eventually made it to the final notching up a clinical victory 14-74, 8-71, 0-87, 78-64, 0-81, 70-37, 7-80, 37-68, 19-74 win.
The 2004 Arjuna award winner, Pankaj Arjan Advani, is the only player in the world to compete at the world championship level in both forms of snooker and be successful in all the formats of both billiards and snooker.
He is the first player ever to win world titles in both the long and short formats of snooker (15-red standard, and 6-red) and also both the formats of English billiards (time and point).
Avani now looks to switch and concentrate his focus on the 3-ball game as he heads back to Bangalore to prepare for the upcoming World Billiards Championship that commences from December 5.
The 31-year old also helped India win the first ever World Team Billiards Championship held in Glasgow, Scotland, alongside Rupesh Shan, Devendra Joshi and Ashok Shandilya.This victory took Advani's overall world title tally to 10, making him the only Indian to win as many accolades in the sport.
