Pankaj Advani beat Sourav Kothari in the Asian Billiards Championship final on Friday to win his seventh Asian title. The 16-time world champion got the better of Kothari in an entertaining final that ended 6-3 in Advani’s favour.
It was Kothari who made the better start when he raced into a 3-1 lead before the interval. However, Advani came back strongly after the interval to win the next frames and take the tie 6-3. It was his sixth Asian Billiards Championship triumph.
Advani, who beat Kothari 4-0 in the group stages of the tournament, faced a completely different challenge in the final. The 32-year-old came out all guns blazing to make breaks of 68, 100 and 99 to lead by two frames in the first session.
However, that was all Kothari could muster in the entire final as Advani made breaks of 92, 101 and 81 after the half-hour break to lead 4-3, not letting his opponent score a single point in the process.
Advani, 31, then slowed down to allow Kothari to stage a comeback but the 32-year-old could muster nothing more than a fleeting challenge. Kothari was away from the table for 25 minutes after the interval. What followed was a thirty break from Kothari which was only enough to bring Advani back to end the frame thereby putting him one frame away from the title.
The champion expressed his delight at his latest win and stressed on the way he came back to win the title after five years and the match after trailing at the break.
He said: “I’m in seventh heaven since it’s my seventh Asian championship. This is a comeback title for me. I’ve come back to win this after five years and in the final, I came back from 1-3 to win the next five frames on the trot to clinch the title.”
Advani now returns to his home in Bangalore for four days. He will switch to snooker before heading to Doha for the Asian Snooker Championship which begins on the 22nd of April.
He won the Asian 6-Red Snooker Championship last year to become the first player in the world to hold the world title as well as the continental title at the same time. Furthermore, no player has won more Asian Billiards Championship titles than Advani, who has six to his name now.
