Pankaj Advani took his tally of world titles to 21 by winning the long and short formats of the IBSF World Billiards Championship titles for a record fourth time here.
On Sunday, he defeated fellow Bengaluru resident B. Bhaskar, a two-time Asian silver medalist and a bronze medal winner at the world level. Bhaskar had to settle for silver.
One-way traffic
A weak break by the tall and lanky Bhaskar allowed Pankaj to start well as he delivered a massive first blow through a 190 break. An additional 173 and 198 widened the gap beyond reach for Bhaskar as he struggled to score a single century. He sat in his chair, probably realising that there was no stopping his colleague.
Read: Pankaj Advani wins third straight IBSF Billiards crown in 150-up format
When Pankaj crossed the thousand mark in the first-to-1500 final, Bhaskar was languishing at 206. The 800-point deficit eventually proved to be a tall order for Bhaskar to bridge.
Prolific run
Last year, Pankaj had won the billiards short format title (he had to settle for bronze in the long format) and the snooker title, too. He is the only player in the world to play both billiards and snooker at the world level and win in both with great consistency.
Pankaj is the winner of three world titles this year so far.
Pankaj was elated after his win. He said: “I’m on top of the world to win my fourth Grand Double in Billiards. It was the toughest field with the likes of Bhaskar, [David] Causier and [Mike] Russell in it and to come out on top is simply unreal. I’m really thrilled to win my 21st world championship gold and am now looking forward to defending my snooker title over the next 10 days.”
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