National champion Pankaj Advani outplayed compatriot Devendra Joshi 6-2 to win his maiden World billiards (Points Format) crown at Qawra, Malta on Wednesday.
The 19-year-old cueist, who also holds the Asian title, again proved that he is more mature as a player than his age suggests as he comfortably defeated his senior opponent 151-107 150-57, 150-93, 151-65, 44-151, 151-62, 30-150, 151-68 in only the second all-Indian summit clash in the history of the championship.
The first time two Indians clashed in the final for the World amateur billiards crown was in 1990, when Manoj Kothari defeated Ashok Shandilya to claim the title at Bangalore.
The triumph also made Advani only the second cueist to have won both the billiards and snooker amateur world titles.
The other player to have achieved this distinction is Malta's Paul Mifsud, who won the IBSF World snooker crown in 1985, 1986 and the IBSF World billiards title in 1979 in Sri Lanka.
Advani had won the 2003 IBSF World Snooker title in China. This was also Advani's second win in a summit clash over Joshi.
He had earlier defeated the veteran in the final of the National championship in Mumbai and beat him in the quarter-finals of the Asian championship at Pune last month.
Advani, who had showed tremendous grit in rallying from a 0-4 deficit to defeat former champion Robby Foldvari of Australia in the semi-finals, was on a roll from the begining and raced to a 4-0 lead at the end of the morning session with three breaks of over 100 in this 150-up event.
Joshi, who had dropped only one frame in the tournament before the summit clash, began with a breaks of 41 and 66 in the first frame but Advani came up with a break of 134 to make a winning start.
The points format event will now be followed by the traditional time format competition, which begins on Thursday.
© 2024 Rediff.com -