By Anand Philar, IANS,
Chennai : Pankaj Advani finally scaled the last big peak in his path to greater glory on the green baize when he defeated nine-times champion Mike Russell in the final of the World Professional Billiards tournament at Leeds.
In winning his maiden professional world billiards title Sunday night, the 24-year old Pune-born, Bangalore-based Advani became the only Indian to have won a world billiards and snooker crown.
Advani, winner of the IBSF World Snooker Championship (amateur) in 2003, had previously won the IBSF World Billiards title (amateur) in both the time and points format, besides achieving a similar “double” in the Asian Championship.
In 1997, as a 11-year old, Advani first showcased his talent when he defeated his elder brother Shree in the final of the B.S. Sampath Memorial tournament in Bangalore.
The Karnataka State Billiards Association swiftly enrolled him in their junior development programme where coach S. Jairaj worked on the basics.
Subsequently, Arvind Savur, arguably one of the finest billiards and snooker player India has produced, took over and nurtured Advani. The two developed a near father-son bonding. Spending many hours and often sleeping overnight at Savur’s Bangalore residence, Advani showed rapid improvement and went on to win titles at the National and international levels.
Savur, currently holidaying in Switzerland, was understandably ecstatic when IANS sought his reactions to Advani’s latest triumph. Savur admitted that he was a bit surprised at the result.
“Honestly, I have no words to describe my happiness at Pankaj winning the pro title. I was a bit surprised at the result, because Mike Russell is undoubtedly one of the greats of modern era. Though I knew that at some point, Pankaj would beat Russell, it still was a surprise, a pleasant one at that, to me,” said Savur.
“I had often told Pankaj that Russell is the player to watch. After all, Pankaj had been beating Geet Sethi consistently and that left just Russell as his main opponent. Pankaj has all the attributes of a champion, though even I am at a loss to explain the sudden dips in his performance levels.
“The major problem has been lack of tournaments worldwide and I am sure that the more of competitive play, the better Pankaj will become. Hopefully, we will get to see a 1000 break from Pankaj sooner than later,” Savur added.
In terms of sheer achievements, Pankaj has exceeded all his peers including India’s first ever world champion Wilson Jones (1958, 1964), Michael Ferreira (1977, 1981, 1983), Sethi (1981, 1987, 2001), Manoj Kothari (1990) and Ashok Shandilya (2002).
Of the lot, only Sethi won the world professional title five times (1992, 1993, 1995, 1998 and 2006) after turning professional in the late 1980s.
The purists would no doubt point out that Pankaj, for all the titles he has won, is still to crack the 1,000-break barrier that is often considered a benchmark for a player. Both Ferreira and Sethi, have crossed the milestone that demands not just consistency, but also intense powers of concentration and ball control.
On the plus side, Pankaj is highly rated for his special ability to extricate himself from difficult situations like he was in against compatriot Dhruv Sitwala in the Leeds semi-finals when he trailed initially by a big margin.
“This is a something very special about Pankaj. So many times in the past, he has bounced back from hopeless positions and this I feel is the hallmark of a true champion. I would certainly rate Pankaj alongside Jones, Ferreira and Geet,” opined Savur.
Well-mannered and impeccably attired, Pankaj idolizes Sethi.
“I would like to be like Geet Sethi on and off the table,” Advani said.
The Advani family moved to Bangalore from Kuwait in 1990 after a three-year stay and it was not long before the brothers took to cuesport during the period when the city witnessed a boom in pool parlours.
For what he is, Pankaj attributes all credit to his mother, Kajal, who brought up her sons after her husband, Arjun, passed away in 1992.
“My mother is everything to me and I am what I am today only because of her,” he had said in 2003 soon after winning the World snooker crown in China.