Pankaj Advani (billiards player)


Pankaj Arjan Advani is an Indian billiards and snooker player. He won the amateur IBSF World Billiards Championship and the IBSF World Snooker Championship 14 times and 3 times respectively. He also won the professional World Billiards Championship 4 times and the amateur Asian Snooker Championship once.
He became a snooker professional in 2012, and his first season on the main tour was the 2012/2013 season. Advani won the 2014 IBSF World 6-Red Snooker Championship, on his debut in that discipline. As such he is currently the only player ever to win world titles in both the long and short formats of snooker and both formats of English billiards. Advani is also India's first world champion in 6-red snooker. Since 2014, Advani has focused solely on English billiards.
In recognition of his achievements, the Government of India has bestowed several awards upon Advani: the Arjuna Award in 2004, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 2006, Padma Shri in 2009 and Padma Bhushan in 2018.

Early life

Pankaj Advani was born on 24 July 1985 to a Sindhi Hindu family in Pune, India. Advani spent his initial years in Kuwait before moving to Bangalore, India. He received his education at the Frank Anthony Public School, Bangalore and completed his bachelor's degree in Commerce from Sri Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain College. He received training in snooker from former national Snooker champion Arvind Savur.
At the age of 10 his acumen for snooker came to the notice of Arvind Savur after being introduced to the sport by his elder brother Dr. Shree Advani, a noted Sport & Performance Psychologist. He won his first ever title at the age of 12 and went on to set several records at the state and national levels. In the year 2000 he won his first Indian Junior Billiards Championship title and then went on to win it again in 2001 and 2003. In 2003 he won the India Junior Snooker Championship which made him the youngest National Snooker champion.

Billiards career

Advani made his international competitive debut at the Asian Billiards Championship 2002, held at Bangalore, in which he finished as a finalist. After an amateur World Snooker Champion title win in 2003, he won the IBSF World Billiards Championship in 2005 at Qawra, Malta, where he became the first to achieve a "grand double" by winning both the time and point formats, a feat he repeated at the 2008 event in Bangalore. He is the only Indian to have won the amateur world title in both snooker and billiards.
Advani won all five national, regional, and world billiards tournaments in a single season, a feat he achieved by winning the Indian Junior National Championship and Senior National Championship, the Asian Billiards Championship, and both the World Billiards Championship and World Billiards Championship in 2005.
Advani won the WPBSA billiards championship title, at Leeds in 2009, against the defending champion Mike Russell; Advani won 2030–1253, after gaining an 800-plus lead at his opening break. He became the first person in the world to win the trio of the WPBSA World Billiards Champion professional title and the IBSF World Billiards Championship amateur title, as well as the IBSF World Snooker Championship amateur title.
In April 2012, Advani won the Asian Billiards Championship in Goa, India to become the first player to win 5 Asian Billiards Champion titles. This takes his total tally of international majors to 17 – 8 Worlds, 5 Asian Billiards, 2 Asian Games Golds, 1 Australian Open and 1 Asian Team. It was announced in May that Advani had accepted the Indian wildcard place on the main snooker tour for the 2012–13 season.
In October 2012, in Leeds, England, Advani won his seventh World Billiards Championship title, eighth world title overall, beating defending and nine-time WPBSA World Billiards Champion Mike Russell again, in the timed division final.
On 14 August 2014, Advani helped win the first ever World Team Billiards Championship held in Glasgow, Scotland, along with Rupesh Shan, Devendra Joshi and Ashok Shandilya.
On 2 February 2017, Pankaj Advani won his 29th National Championship Title at the PYC Hindu Gymkhana in Pune, India. This gave him a 39 match-winning streak. Overall, as of 2017 Advani had won 60 titles: 19 world titles; 8 Asian titles; 2 Asian Games titles; 1 Australian Open title and 30 national titles.

Snooker career

Pankaj Advani, on international competitive debut in the discipline, won the IBSF World Snooker Championship on 25 October 2003 in Jiangmen, China. He was 18 years old, and became the youngest Indian to win the title, his first world title. A decade later, as a 28-year-old, at the IBSF World 6-Red World Snooker Championship in Sharm-El-Sheik, Egypt, he won one of the amateur world titles.
As a new player on the tour, Advani would need to win four matches to reach the main stage of the ranking events. He did this in just his fourth attempt, when qualifying for the International Championship. He defeated Craig Steadman 6–1, six-time world champion Steve Davis 6–5, Alan McManus 6–3 and Michael Holt 6–4 to reach the venue stage for the first time. He made four s during qualification, the most of any player. Advani was to play a wildcard match once at the tournament in Chengdu, China, to reach the last 32, however he decided to withdraw from the tournament to take part in the World Billiards Championship, which he went on to win. He also reached the semi-finals of the minor ranking European Tour Event 1, beating four-time world champion John Higgins 4–1 along the way. Advani lost to Mark Selby 2–4. Advani played in eight of the ten of these Players Tour Championship events and finished 40th on the Order of Merit.
At the 2013 Welsh Open, he became the first Indian player to reach the quarter-final stage of a ranking event with a 4–1 win over Graeme Dott in the last 16, but lost 2–5 to Judd Trump. Advani's season ended when he was beaten 8–10 by Joe Swail in the first round of World Championship Qualifying. He was ranked world number 74 after his first year on the main snooker tour.

2013/2014 season

The 2013–14 season saw the introduction of a ranking event in Advani's home country of India for the first time which he qualified for by beating Matthew Selt 4–0. At the tournament in New Delhi Advani defeated Marcus Campbell 4–1 and Mark Allen 4–2. His match with Allen finished at 11 pm local time, with Advani back in last 16 action at 10 am the next morning to play Stuart Bingham. The match went to a deciding frame and when Bingham broke down on a break of 30, Advani stepped in to compose a match winning 86. Advani played compatriot Aditya Mehta in the quarter-finals in an iconic match in Indian snooker as the winner would be the country's first ranking event semi-finalist. The match was heavily focused on safety and it was Mehta who advanced with a 4–3 win. His best run in a ranking event during the rest of the season was at the World Open, where he narrowly beat Xiao Guodong 5–4 to set up a last 32 meeting with Ding Junhui. Advani had a lead of 4–2 in the best of nine frame match and was 35 points to 0 ahead in the seventh frame to be on the cusp of a shock result against the player who had already won four ranking events this season. However, Ding made a break of 52 to win the frame, compiled a 136 to draw level and won the deciding frame in one visit to defeat Advani. Advani's successful season saw him finish inside the top 64 in the world rankings for the first time as he was placed 56th.

2014/2015 season

Advani didn't enter any tournaments until September 2014, when he announced that he was relinquishing his snooker tour card to concentrate on his billiards career and spend more time with his family. He received an invite to participate in the wildcard round of the 2015 Indian Open, but lost 4–3 to Rhys Clark.

2015/2016 season

Advani wrote himself into the history books in May 2016 by winning the Asian 6-Red Snooker title. He became the first player in the world to hold the world title as well as the continental title at the same time after he beat Malaysian Keen Hoh Moh 7–5. In the same tournament, Advani sailed to the semi-finals of the World Amateur Snooker Championship where he lost to Thailand's Kritsanut Lertsattayathorn.

2016/2017 season

Advani received an entry in to the wildcard round of the Indian Open and he beat Fang Xiongman 4–2 and Elliot Slessor 4–0, before losing 4–3 to Stephen Maguire in the second round. He won all of his group matches at the Six-red World Championship and then eliminated Lukas Kleckers 6–0 and Yuan Sijun 6–4. Michael Holt withdrew from the event which moved Advani straight in to the semi-finals, where he was defeated 7–4 by Ding Junhui.

Performance and rankings timeline of professional snooker

Titles

  • 2018
  • *2018 World Billiards Championship - Gold
  • *2018 World Billiards Championship - Gold
  • * 10 Red Snooker Asian Tour- Gold
  • *IBSF – ACBS World Team Cup
  • 2017
  • *IBSF World Snooker Championship
  • * IBSF World Billiards Championship
  • 2016
  • *IBSF World Billiards Championship
  • 2015
  • * IBSF World Snooker Championship
  • * IBSF World 6-Red Snooker Championship
  • * IBSF World Billiards Championship
  • 2014
  • * IBSF World 6-Red Snooker Championship
  • * World Team Billiards Championship
  • *IBSF World Billiards Championship
  • 2012
  • * World Billiards Championship
  • *Asian Billiards Championship
  • 2010
  • *Asian Games Gold Medallist – English Billiards Singles
  • *Asian Billiards Championship
  • 2009
  • *World Professional Billiards Championship
  • *Asian Billiards Championship
  • 2008
  • *IBSF World Billiards Championship
  • *Asian Billiards Championship
  • 2007
  • *IBSF World Billiards Championship
  • 2006
  • *Asian Games Gold Medallist – English Billiards singles
  • 2005
  • *IBSF World Billiards Championship
  • *Asian Billiards Championship
  • *India Billiards Championship
  • *India Junior Snooker Championship
  • *India Junior Billiards Championship
  • *WSA Challenge Tour
  • 2004
  • *WSA Challenge Tour
  • 2003
  • *IBSF World Snooker Championship
  • *Indian Junior Billiards Championship
  • *Indian Junior Snooker Championship
  • 2001
  • * Indian Junior Billiards Championship
  • 2000
  • *Indian Junior Billiards Championship
  • 1999
  • *Pot Shot All India Triangular Championship
  • *Pot Shot non-medallist Championship
  • 1998
  • *Karnataka State Junior Snooker Championship
  • 1997
  • *27th BS Sampath Memorial Handicap Snooker Championship
  • *T.A. Selvaraj Memorial Billiards Championship
  • *Karnataka Stage Junior Snooker Championship

    Awards and honours

  • Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour, 2018
  • Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India's highest sporting honour, 2005–06
  • Rajyotsava Prashasti, Karnataka's second highest civilian honour, 2007.
  • Karnataka's "Kempegowda Award", 2007.
  • Ekalavya Award, Karnataka's highest sporting honour, 2007
  • Vision of India's "International Indian" Award, 2005.
  • Senior Sportsperson of the Year, 2005
  • The Sports Writers' Association of Bangalore Award, 2005
  • The Bangalore University Sportsperson of the Year, 2005
  • The Hero India Sports Award, 2004
  • The Rajeev Gandhi Award, 2004
  • The Arjuna Award, 2004
  • The Indo-American Young Achiever's Award, 2003
  • The Sports Star Sportsperson of the Year, 2003