Pankaj Advani: The youngest world snooker champion

NEW DELHI: Pankaj Advani, who has just become the youngest world snooker champion, now plans to undergo professional coaching in England and could even turn professional.

Advani made his Diwali Saturday memorable by defeating fifth seeded Saleh Mohammad of Pakistan 11-6 -- 35-64, 7-79, 73-10, 66-56, 46-59, 87-13, 81-43, 71-13, 0-95, 15-93, 64-36, 78-33, 43-47, 135-0, 65-46, 70-63, 63-22 -- in the final at Jiangmen in China.

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At 18 years and three months, Advani is the youngest snooker world champion.

The reigning national champion, Advani accounted for several seeds on his way to the top. They included eighth seeded Elfed Evans of Wales 5-4 in the pre-quarter-finals, top seeded Paithoon Phonbun of Thailand 6-2 in the quarter-finals, and fifth seeded Brendan O'Donoghue of Ireland 8-3 in the semi-finals.

By winning the world title, the Bangalore-based college student emulated the feat of compatriot Omprakash Bharadwaj Agarwal, who had won the crown in 1984.

Born on July 24, 1985, at Pune, Advani had never planned a career in the cue sports, but played sports like cricket and badminton at school.

Then on a visit to a local parlour, Advani tried a few shots at snooker and it left a lasting impression on the youngster.

Soon he took up the game in all earnestness. Being based in Bangalore helped him as he came in contact with several top national players, especially Arvind Savur.

Savur, a former world No. 4 and national champion, took him under his wing and with it started a long and lasting relationship.

For Advani, the first big win came in 1997, when he won the B.S. Sampath Memorial Handicap Tournament at 11 years and seven months.

He remained Karnataka junior snooker champion from 1997 to 2002 and billiards champion from 1999 to 2002.

In 2001, Advani gave a proof of his rapid raise as he bagged the grand slam of junior billiards and snooker tiles as well as senior billiards and snooker crowns.

Last year, he narrowly missed repeating the feat. He won the junior billiards and snooker titles besides the senior snooker crown, but finished runner-up in the senior billiards championship.

He also clinched the award for the highest break in all four events!

While dominating the state tournaments, Advani also made his presence felt at the national level.

Between 1999 and 2002, Advani won four successive junior billiards titles - and in 2001 and 2002 was the junior snooker national champion.

He won the 2002 senior snooker championship to become the youngest, at 17 years, to win the national title.

Although Advani ended up third in the senior billiards championship, he equalled Geet Sethi's record of winning three titles in same championships.

Seven-time world champion Sethi, along with multiple world-title winner Stephen Hendry of Scotland, are Advani's favourite players.

Advani's first meaningful outing at the world level came in 2001, when he finished fourth in the Asian under-21 Snooker Championship at Bangkok, and came third in World under-21 Snooker Championship at Latvia.

Last year, he finished runner-up at the Asian Billiards Championships at Bangalore and represented India in team snooker event at Busan Asian Games.

Last year Advani turned professional in billiards.

A couple of months ago, Advani gave another glimpse of things to come in New Zealand when he finished fifth in World under-21 Snooker Championship.

And he has now enhanced his credentials with the world snooker title.

Advani has also set his sights as turning professional in snooker, too. For this, he wants to go to England and train under Hendry.

The government has already Advani a grant to train abroad and he will soon go to England with an aim of further improving his game.
Source: IANS