Pankaj Advani completes grand double in World Billiards Championship, beats Sourav Kothari in final

Doha: Ace Indian cueist Pankaj Advani completed his fifth grand double with a dominating 5-0 win over compatriot Sourav Kothari in the final of the IBSF World Billiards Championship (point-format) here on Friday. The victory extended Advani’s world title tally to a staggering 27. In a repeat of the world championship final, Advani stamped his authority over Kothari. The 38-year-old, who had defeated Kothari recently in the longer format of 1000-point, won the earlier editions in 2005, 2008, 2014, and 2018. This is in addition to the snooker double he won in 2015. The short format was a best-of-9 contest of 150-point frames, while Sourav made a strong start in the first frame, Advani came from 6-91 with a classy 144 unfinished break to go 1-0 up. The following two frames saw Advani score heavily with another two century breaks to make it 3-0. With two frames to go, Advani was clearly in the driver’s seat. While the last two frames were devoid of any century breaks, the Bangalore-based cueist crafted useful breaks of 81 and 77 to close out the match and the championship. Advani will now head back home for 10 days before travelling to Chennai for the National Billiards and Snooker Championship.