IBSF World Billiards 2007 ...

 

Pankaj defended the title successfully

Pankaj Advani won the IBSF World Billiards Championship for the Arthur Walker trophy for the second successive year beating but it was the man he beat, Mumbai's Dhruv Sitwala who won the hearts of the crowd at the Orchid Country Club on Saturday.


Advani won by 1963 points to 1489 in the six-hour time format final.  Pankaj, defending both the points (150-up) and time format (2 hour) titles, had lost in the round of 16 in the points format last week.


Said Pankaj : "Dhruv and I get along well. We were roommates. It was the first time I successfully defended a world title. It's never easy maintaining your position at the top. And I had to come back after doing badly in the points format. After four and a half hours when we were level, the match could have gone any way."


Advani was happy Indians had ruled the roost. "In snooker China are tops, Indians are tops in billiards."


Asked about his best Advani said it was the match against Peter Gilchrist when he made a 355 break to end his resistance. Said Sitwala: "It was tough to lose after beating Sethi and Shandilya. The breaks Pankaj made towards the end finished me. Even when he missed he did not give me a chance. It was a test of character for me as I had not made the knockout stage in the points format and my self-esteem was low for the time format. I won the league matches after trailing. But I grew in confidence after beating England amateur champ Mathew Sutton with breaks of 150 and 186. Sethi I had beaten thrice in a row on the Indian circuit but not on the international circuit."


Dhruv downed the legendary Geet Sethi 1053-932 to enter the final. Gilchrist had downed recently-crowned time format world champ Rupesh Shah 1148-819 in the quarter-finals. Sethi made the highest break of 766. Devendra Joshi also had a big break of 670 before losing to Shandilya.


 

 

Singapore :: 14th September 2007

 

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