Saturday, November 21, 2015

Pankaj Advani captures his 15 world snooker title

Hurghada, Egypt, November 21, 2015: Zhao Xintong, the 18 year old Chinese sensation completely outplayed his opponent Ben Jones of England 7-1 in the semifinals but found it tough against 14 times world cuesport champion Pankaj Advani of India.

Advani beat  Xintong 8-6 to win his 15 world title 

Pankaj, who had a long match against Lucas Kleckers of Germany in the other semifinals yesterday warding off his challenge 7-5, quickly captured the first 2 frames in the best of 15 finals with breaks of 106 and 56 in the first and the second respectively. Xintong took the third with a break of 53 and when in total control of the 4th got trapped by a deadly snooker behind brown ball. Unable to convert the snooker Xintong gave Advani a half chance at the top end which was immediately punished with a spectacular opening red stun pot along the top cushion. Advani thereafter took full control of the proceedings to go ahead 3-1

A deadly safety play by Advani once again put Xintong glued to his seat with scoring only 1 point as Advani kept him trapping him under the baulk line to get openings and went ahead by 4-1.

Xintong who was seen to be at the receivers end for the first time in the championship certainly was not as smooth and controlled as he had been all through to the finals and unexpectedly landed couple of times in awkward positions while on a break. However, the talent was visible as every time he came out of the situations unfolding his vast repertoire of strokes to win the 6th frame with a finely crafted break of 72 points and brought down the deficit to 2-4.

In the seventh Advani, well aware of the wide range of potting and break building capability of his worthy adversary never got tempted and applied his extraordinary cushion skills to every time come inside the baulk line and kept Zhao at bay. At this juncture one could see the restlessness in Zhao as he started over trying in desperation and ultimately succumbed to the game plan of Advani. Calm, composed and sharp as always ever, Advani made full use of the opportunity and crafted a well-controlled break of 74 points to race ahead to a 5-2 lead at the interval.  

Yesterday in the Women’s category Amee Kamani of India squandered her opportunity to be the first women player from India to reach the finals of IBSF world Snooker Championship. Amee was on song from the very first stroke on the table against Anastasia Nechaeva of Russia and quickly went up 2-0 in a best of seven frames semi-final clash with some delectable long pots.

A finely constructed 62 breaks in the third by Anastasia reduced the deficit to 1-2. Amee however came back strongly in the fourth and a ding dong battle saw Amee going up 3-1. A couple of unforced errors by Amee in fifth frame saw Anastasia claiming the frame and bringing the proceeding to 2-3. Amee who had all the opportunity to claim the sixth frame and the match faltered a couple of times and send the match to the decider. In the decider Anastasia was in her brilliant best as she crafted a magnificent match winning break of 50 points exhibiting an array of strokes enviable to even the top ranked men players of the world.

Wendy Jans of Belgium defeated Anastasia Nechaeva of Russia 5-1 to retain her IBSF Women’s world title.

Yesterday was a bad day for India in the Masters category too as all the good work by Rafath Habib went in vain as he failed to reach the medal round losing on 3-4 in the last black ball to Jason Peplow of Malta in the quarterfinals.

Rafath who started with a massive break of 134 in the first frame and another 57 in the fourth made it 3-3 and came from behind in the decider with only one red on the table needing all the colour balls but faltered on the last black and gave away the frame and the match to Peplow.

Phisit Chandsri of Thailand defeated Jason Peplow of Malta 6-2 to win the IBSF Masters event.

Press release


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