Pankaj Advani wins World Professional Billiards Championship

[Ruag]

Pankaj Advani seals World Professional Billiards Championship win

• Indian beats Mike Russell 2,030-1,253
• Is second Indian to win title in 139 years

Clive Everton
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 6 September 2009 23.04 BST

Pankaj Advani, a 24-year-old Indian whose entry was initially mislaid, forcing the competition to be re-drawn, beat Mike Russell, the defending and nine times champion, 2,030-1,253 to win the World Professional Billiards Championship at the Northern Snooker Centre, Leeds.

Advani was 77 behind Dhruv Sitwala with only 13 minutes remaining in Saturday evening's semi-final but then played out time with 142 to win by 55.

Russell, who comes from Redcar but now represents Qatar, recovered from the first-session deficit of 198 to beat a third Indian semi-finalist, Rupesh Shah, by 486. But he was always struggling against Advani, who made a break of 226 and six more centuries in becoming the second Indian to win the title in its 139-year history.

Pankaj Advani seals World Professional Billiards Championship win | Sport | guardian.co.uk

 

[jaunty]

Well done Pankaj Advani.
Its good that we are finally starting to do well in sports outside cricket and best thing that has happened since Bindra won the gold in Beijing is that Indian media is finally giving importance to other sports. Still a long way to go. Nevertheless a good start to say the least.

 

[Ruag]

Well done Pankaj Advani.
Its good that we are finally starting to do well in sports outside cricket and best thing that has happened since Bindra won the gold in Beijing is that Indian media is finally giving importance to other sports. Still a long way to go. Nevertheless a good start to say the least.

Definitely. 2009 has been an exceptional year for India in sports other that cricket -

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