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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