Seven-time world billiards champion Geet Sethi believes Pankaj Advani has the potential to win 10 world billiards titles.
Five-time chess world champion Anand and nine-time world champion Sethi will be mentoring the high-profile athletes signed up by Olympic Gold Quest, who are looking to improve India's showing from the last Games in London when they won six medals.
The seven-time World champion lost to Thailand's C Praput while defending champion Devendra Joshi was beaten by Pankaj Advani in the Asian Billiards Championship.
Reigning World professional champion Pankaj Advani and veteran Geet Sethi will spearhead India's challenge in the billiards category in this year's Asian Games to be held in Ghungzhou, China from November 12-27.
18-year-old Advani went down narrowly to U Kyaw Oo of Myanmar in the last 16 in the World billiards championship.
Pankaj Advani and Geet Sethi will play in the seven-man Indian team for the Asian Billiards Championship.
The third seeded Indian ace lost to the second seeded Irishman 2-4 in the World Snooker Championships.
Veteran cueist Geet Sethi survived a scare against Malta's Simon Zammit, while Pankaj Advani had a field day against Moosa Saleem of Mauritius on the second day of the ONGC-World Snooker Championship in Hyderabad on Monday.
Pankaj Advani and Geet Sethi hardly broke a sweat but compatriot Yasin Merchant had to toil for his win in the IBSF World Snooker Championship in Hyderabad.
World snooker champion Pankaj Advani and John Hartley of England play the opening match of the tournament on November 17.
The semi-finals of the ONGC-IBSF World Billiards (Time Format) championship will be an all-Indian affair, after defending champion Pankaj Advani, eight-time World champion Geet Sethi, Rupesh Shah and Devendra Joshi made the grade at the Karnataka State Billiards Association in Bangalore on Monday.
Merchant showed the door to Alok Kumar 4-2 in a well-fought quarter-final clash.
The seven-time world billiards champion says the game needs a hero to explode in the country.
Geet Sethi, Devendra Joshi, Ashok Shandilya and Pankaj Advani stormed into the last four to create history.
India's legendary sportsmen (from left to right) Sunil Gavaskar, Geet Sethi and Vijay Amritraj at the 13th annual WhartonIndia Economic Forum, at Park Hyatt in Philadelphia.
Defending champion Pankaj Advani and veteran Geet Sethi cruised past their respective opponents to advance to the quarter-finals of the Time-format in the IBSF World Billiards Championship in Pune on Wednesday.
India's Pankaj Advani is the new World Professional Billiards Champion. He beat the defending champion, Mark Russel, 2030-1253 to win the title.
Indian players, including Pankaj Advani, Rupesh Shah and Geet Sethi scored easy victories during the opening day of the IBSF World Billiards Championship in Bangalore on Monday.
Olympic Gold Quest, an initiative to support talented Indian sportspersons in their quest for Olympic medals, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Confederation of Indian Industry, on Friday, to promote sports at the grassroots level through the involvement of corporates.
Sunil Gavaskar, P T Usha, Geet Sethi, Dhanraj Pillay and Irfan Pathan have joined hands to spread the message of 'Sports for Development and Peace'.
Indian billiards player Dhruv Sitwala's hopes of winning his maiden World Professional title came crashing down after he lost his summit clash to nine-time champion Mike Russell of Qatar at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds.
With exactly a year left for the 2012 Olympics, in London, Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ), founded by sports legends Geet Sethi and Prakash Padukone, had their new website unveiled by actor Deepika Padukone, in Delhi, on Tuesday. OGQ said it will be working closely with sports technology company Sports Mechanics to provide high-performance video analytical solutions to its athletes to aid their preparations.
World chess champion Viswanathan Anand joined the Board of Directors of Olympic Gold Quest, which already has all time great Indian sportspersons like Geet Sethi, Prakash Padukone, P T Usha and Leander Paes, to give a boost to Olympic medal hopefuls.
The Olympic Gold Quest, founded by sports legends Prakash Padukone and Geet Sethi, has provisionally suspended the funding it gives to drug-tainted athlete Ashwini Akkunji, one of the sports persons it supports, and is awaiting the result of her "B" sample.
The Indian billiards fraternity on Monday showered rich praise on Pankaj Advani after he defeated defending champion and nine-time winner Mike Russell of Qatar in the final and claimed the World Professionals Billiards Championship.
Pankaj Advani's hopes of winning the World Professional Billiards title for the second consecutive time went up in smoke after compatriot Dhruv Sitwala registered a hard fought 723-608 victory over the reigning champion in the quarter-finals of the event in Leeds.
Devendra Joshi and Dhruv Sitwala scored fluent back-to-back wins while Rupesh Shah suffered defeat against Englishman Mike Russell on the opening day of the Time-Format event in the IBSF-DY Patil Vidyapeeth World Billiards Championship in Pune on Tuesday.
Up-and-coming Indian pugilists Suranjoy Singh and Nanao Singh are set to sign a sponsorship deal with Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ), floated by badminton ace Prakash Padukone and billiards champion Geet Sethi.
Ace cueist Geet Sethi squandered chances galore and suffered a shock 3-4 defeat against unheralded Costas Konnaris of Cyprus in the Masters' category quarter-finals as the Indian challenge ended in the World Snooker Championships in Hyderabad on Monday.
Newly-crowned World Professional billiards champion Pankaj Advani on Tuesday said he was hopeful that his title would inspire others to take up the game and win more laurels for the country.
Pankaj Advani, Rupesh Shah and Dhruv Sitwala kept Indian hopes alive after registering contrasting wins in the quarter-finals of the 2009 World Professional Billiard Championship in Leeds on Saturday.
Indoor Asian Games in Macau, with Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran and Koneru Humpy winning gold in individual Blitz chess and Geet Sethi grabbing second place in billiards singles.
Pankaj Advani survived a scare before beating New Zealand's Gary Oliver in a league encounter of the ONGC IBSF World Billiards Championship in Bangalore on Tuesday. The 23-year-old local boy prevailed over his dogged opponent 3-2 (101-151, 151-98, 117-151, 152-0, 151-107), but not before some tense moments in an edge-of-the-seat match at the Karnataka State Billiards Association hall.
Indian cueist Alok Kumar registered his fourth victory in as many group matches to reach the knock-out stage in the men's event of the ONGC-IBSF World Snooker Championship in Hyderabad on Wednesday. The 41-year-old, who is yet to loose a frame in four matches played so far, thrashed Ryan Somaratna of Sri Lanka 4-0 to reach the round of 64 at the International Convention Centre.
Joshi claimed a thrilling nine-point win in a pulsating billiards pre-quarter-final encounter to steal the day's honours in the National Billiards and Snooker championship.
Pankaj Advani advanced to the final of the ONGC IBSF time-format World Billiards Championship defeating Geet Sethi 1269-1003 in Bangalore on Tuesday.
The national champion was stretched by Neeta Sanghvi in the Bombay Gymkhana All India Ladies Open Snooker Tournament.
The seven-time world champion joined Pankaj Advani and Sourav Kothari in the per-quarter-finals of the National Billiards Championship.
England is the only other country, where a professional national league has been existent.
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