The Indian beat Paul Wilcock of Isle of Man in a junior section league match of the World IBSF Under-21 and Seniors Snooker championship.\n
Former national champion Alok Kumar also stayed on course for a place in the knock-out round atthe World Snooker championships.
Pankaj Advani added another feather to his illustrious cap as the eight-time world champion became only the second Indian cueist to qualify for the main draw of Welsh Open Pro Snooker Series.
India' Pankaj Advani and Aditya Mehta continued their winning streaks by securing a place in the semi-final of the Asian Snooker Championship, while Kamal Chawla failed to qualify for the last four stage in Indore on Friday.
Advani, who at 19 became the youngest world champion in 2003, will lead the Indian challenge at the World Snooker Grand Prix, beginning at Pontin's, England, on Wednesday.
Indian ace Pankaj Advani notched up a thrilling win over compatriot Dhruv Sitwala in the semi-final to set up a title clash with nine-time winner and defending champion Mark Russel in the World Professional Billiards Championship in Leeds. Advani edged past Sitwala 1037-972 in an extremely close match.
But former champion Yasin Merchant failed to make it, losing in the quarter-finals, in the Asian Snooker Championship.
Besides the duo, 2017 World Weightlifting Champion in the 48kg category, Saikhom Mirabai Chanu and former Asian Games gold medallist tennis player Somdev Devvarman were conferred with the Padma Shri award.
Geet Sethi shrugged off a first frame deficit to thrash Kuwait's Ayyoub Alsharrah in the Masters category, while World champion Pankaj Advani continued his brilliant run in the men's event, defeating compatriot Sandeep Gulati, in the IBSF World Snooker Championships, in Hyderabad, on Thursday.
India's Pankaj Advani faced few problems in defeating Finland's Antti Silvo 4-1 in a Group D tie to storm into the knockout stages of the IBSF World Snooker Championship in Bangalore on Wednesday.
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.
India's top cueist Pankaj Advani seeks corporate help to help him play a second season of the pro circuit in London.
The Indian scored 3-0 wins against Larry Drennan of Ireland and Kiwi Paul Wereta in 150-up point format.
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.
They scored thumping victories over Yasin Marchant and Sarang Shroff respectively in the semi-finals of the National Snooker Championship.
18-year-old Advani went down narrowly to U Kyaw Oo of Myanmar in the last 16 in the World billiards championship.
Lack of sponsors has put the world snooker champion's professional circuit plans in jeopardy.
Yasin Merchant will take on Alok Kumar in the other semi-final tomorrow to decide the second participant for the championship.
Ace Indian cueist Pankaj Advani's hopes of winning the IBSF World snooker title for the second time in his career came crashing down after he failed to overcome a spirited challenge from Dechawat Pomajaeng of Thailand in the final of the event in Damascus, Syria, on Thursday. Advani lost 37-67, 71-47, 69-35, 138-00, 12-85, 15-68, 13-63, 27-68, 57-56, 61-15, 15-71, 35-75, 32-58, 71-25, 62-33, 00-130, 08-92.
They scored easy victories over Ashik Shandilya and Devendra Joshi respectively in the semi-finals of the IBSF World Billiards Time Format 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.
Pankaj Advani continued his surge in the World Billiards Championship (time format), making it to the semi-finals with a 916-665 victory over compatriot Rupesh Shah, in Leeds, on Tuesday, while Balachandra Bhaskar shocked Singapore's Peter Gilchrist.
Indian badminton team's chief coach Pullela Gopichand, multiple world title holder cueist Pankaj Advani, former hockey captain Dhanraj Pillay were some of the prominent names who made financial contribution in country's fight against coronavirus pandemic.
They entered the semi-finals of the National Billiards and Snooker Tournament in Mumbai.
Ace cueist Pankaj Advani is confident of defending his title in the Asian Billiards Championship beginning in Indore on Tuesday but reckons it would be far from a cakewalk because of the unpredictability of the 100-up format.
It was a day of mixed fortunes for Indian cueists as Geet Sethi was beaten by Clive Thomson (New Zealand) while star attraction Pankaj Advani and veteran Yasin Merchant maintained their winning streaks in the IBSF World Snooker Championship in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
Yasin Merchant and Pankaj Advani were one of the most successful of nine pairs, recording two victories
Title contender Pankaj Advani won the clash of bigwigs as he tamed Peter Gilchrist of Singapore 4-1 to enter the semi-finals of the points format competition in the ONGC IBSF World Billiards Championship in Bangalore on Wednesday.
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.
The Indian cueist's showing earned him the top seeding in the knock-out round in the world under-21 snooker championship.
Pocketing his 13th World title, ace cueist Pankaj Advani feels that an IPL-like league in snooker or billiards would be a possibility in the game that has become financially rewarding.
His feat of becoming a three-time Asian billiards champion going virtually unnoticed amid the IPL hype, ace Indian cueist Pankaj Advani rued that his failures make more news than his triumphs.
However, National champion Manan Chandran was taken the distance by Ben Farnworth of New Zealand in the World snooker championships.
Reigning world champion Pankaj Advani's medal hopes in the ongoing third Asian Indoor Games went up in smoke after he crashed out in the pre-quarterfinals of the 6-Red Snooker discipline in Hanoi, Vietnam on Monday.
The Indian challenge in the World Under-21 Snooker Championship ended with the former losing in the pre-quarters and the latter in the quarter-finals.
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.
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.
Eight-time world champion Pankaj Advani says he is playing the best snooker of his life on the Pro circuit and now wants to pass on his vast experience to the new generation of Indian cueists who aspire to compete at the highest level.
BSFI president P N Roy said Advani's World Championship win will encourage youngsters to take to snooker in greater numbers.
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