Pankaj Advani Scales New Heights in the World of Cue Sports

Pankaj Advani's name continued to sum up Indian cue sports for yet another year as the long-time posterboy took his world title count to an unprecedented 15. (Click here for latest Sports stories)

It started with Advani clinching his 13th world title after winning the World 6-Red Snooker Championship convincingly in August. Defending champion outplayed Chinese Yan Bingtao 6-2, stamping his authority on the green baize in the final in Karachi.

Bengaluru's 'Golden Boy' continued his fine run to win the World Billiards Championship after outplaying Singapore's Peter Gilchrist in the title clash.

The win also came as a sweet revenge for Advani as he had lost the final of the point format championship to Gilchrist.

On a roll, the unstoppable Advani pocketed his 15th world crown in November after battling past his Chinese opponent Zhua Xintong in a tough final in Hurghada, Egypt.

He once again mesmerised the audience to prevail over the teenage sensation 8-6 in the best-of-15 final. He also became the first person in history to take the short (6-Red) and the long snooker format in the same calendar year.

This was Advani's first 15-Red Snooker title since 2003 when he won the crown in China. But Egypt proved lucky for the champion, who had won his first 6-Red world title here last year.

Earlier, the ace cueist started the year with a bang when he won the National Billiards and Snooker Championships in January.

Advani faced some resistance from Dhruv Sitwala in the National Billiards final but managed to emerge triumphant and then got past Varun Madan to clinch the snooker title.

This was the fourth time in his career that Advani has won both the billiards and snooker national titles. Advani also has seven senior national billiards titles, taking the total count to 26 in all age groups.

Indore's Amee Kamani, on the other hand, won her maiden title when she defeated experienced Vidya Pillai in the Ladies Snooker finals.

The year also saw the emergence of young champions with Chinese teenagers Bingtao and Xintong making their presence felt. Both the players lost their respective finals to Advani but not before giving a glimpse of their brilliance and what may follow if they continue the good work.