Thanks to their rich medal haul in the Guangzhou Asian Games, cueists Pankaj Advani, Alok Kumar and Yasin Merchant, among others, were on Sunday honoured at a felicitation programme organised by the Billiards & Snooker Federation of India (BSFI) and Karnataka State Billiards Association (KSBA).
Reigning champion Pankaj Advani stayed on course for a second successive World Professional Billiards title after securing contrasting wins over compatriot Sushrat Pandia and England's Martin Goodwill on the opening day of the event in Leeds.
Defending champion Pankaj Advani and veteran Geet Sethi entered the semi-finals of the time format in the IBSF World Billiards Championship after contrasting victories in Pune on Thursday. Sethi defeated compatriot Ashok Shandilya by a huge margin of 1230 points, while Advani beat another Indian Rupesh Shah by 595 points after trailing nearly by 170 points, at the PYC Gymkhana Club.
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.
World billiards champion Pankaj Advani says cue sports can contemplate changing the dress code and also add a few other things to make an attractive discipline like the Indian Premier League.
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.
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.
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.
Indian Space Research Organisation chairman G Madhavan Nair, Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra, historian Ramachandra Guha and noted billiard player Pankaj Advani were among the 63 personalities who received the Padma awards in New Delhi on Tuesday. The recipients also include social activist Sunderlal Bahuguna and veteran actor Helen Khan. President Prathibha Patil gave away the Padma awards at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
He has made winning 12 world titles look like a stroll in the park but India's poster boy of cue sports Pankaj Advani says it is not easy to deal with the anxiety and stress, crediting his elder brother Shree for helping him handle pressure.
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.
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.
Defending champion Pankaj Advani and veteran Geet Sethi reigned supreme at the green baize to enter the semi-finals in the Point-format of IBSF World Billiards Championship in Pune on Sunday.
Ace Indian cueist Pankaj Advani on stormed into the finals of the IBSF World Snooker championships after defeating Rodney Goggins of Ireland 7-4 in Damascus, Syria.
India's top cueist Pankaj Advani fought off a stiff resistance from Keen Hoo Moh of Malaysia to notch up a 4-2 win in his opening match in the Seaways IBSF World Snooker Championship in Bangalore.
Star cueist Pankaj Advani provided the first gold medal for India in the 16th Asian Games by clinching the title in billards singles while the shooters accounted for a silver and bronze on the second day of competitions in Guangzhou on Sunday.
National billiards champion Alok Kumar on Sunday became the first Indian to win an Asian Games medal in pool events by clinching bronze in the men's 8-ball category despite losing in the semi-finals in Guangzhou.
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.
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.
Mumbai's Aditya Mehta, the lone Indian on the world professional circuit, lived up to his reputation, defeating former champion Alok Kumar of Punjab 6-2, to clinch the title in the 78th National snooker championship in Chennai on Tuesday. Mehta won the best-of-11 frames final 66-6, 6-63, 72-65, 67-41, 67-10, 74-58, 43-52, 82-5 in three hours.
Defending champion Pankaj Advani came one step closer towards registering a hat-trick of titles, beating Myanmar's Kyaw Oo 5-3 in the semi-finals of the Asian Billiards championship in Indore, on Wednesday. Advani will face Singapore's Peter Gilchrist, whom he had beaten in the final in Pune last year, in the best-of-11-frames final on Thursday.
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.
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.
While Geet Sethi went down 1022-1668 to England's Peter Gilchrist in the first semi-final, Pankaj Advani lost 1300-1417 to another Englishman, Mike Russell, in the other last four stage match at the World Billiards Championship in Pune.
Pankaj Advani failed to defend his IBSF billiards title in the Points format, as he went down 0-6 to nine-time World champion Mike Russell of England in a one-sided final in Pune on Monday. Russell, who lost to Advani in the World Professional Billiards championship in Leeds last year, produced an impeccable display of cue control and potting to beat the Indian 151-129, 151-00, 151-29, 150-20, 151-09, 151-125.
Defending champion Pankaj Advani opened his campaign in style, winning both his group matches, but eight-time winner Geet Sethi suffered one of the worst starts in his career, losing back-to-back league matches on the opening day of the IBSF World Billiards Championship in Pune on Friday.
Cue sports ace Mike Russell of England will be seen in action on the green baize in India after almost a decade-and-a-half at the Dr D Y Patil Vidyapeeth-IBSF World Billiards Championship which unfolds in Pune on August 20. The former nine-time World champion and Sethi loom as major hurdles in the aspirations of India's defending champion Pankaj Advani at the tournament, which carries a total prize pool of US $18,000.
From Union Home Minister Amit Shah to India's double Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar to actor Ranveer Singh, emotional tributes poured in for Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who announced his retirement on Saturday
Through seven World and five Asian titles and across 30 countries one thing has remained unchanged in Billiards wonder boy Pankaj Advani's life - his lucky cue.
Sourav Kothari caused the biggest upset of the tournament, beating Pankaj Advani in the final, to win the Rs 3,10,000 Nahar-MIG All India Invitation Snooker Championship 2010 in Mumbai on Wednesday.
Ace Indian cueist Pankaj Advani capped his Asian Indoor Games campaign by winning a bronze medal in the English Billiards singles category in Hanoi, Vietnam.
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.
Reigning world champion Pankaj Advani kept India's hopes alive in the third Indoor Asian Games after advancing to the quarterfinals of the 15-Red Snooker discipline in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal walked away with the Sports Person of the Year award for 2008-09, while World billiards champion Pankaj Advani and cricketer Virender Sehwag shared the honour for 2007-08 at the ninth PSPB annual awards in Delhi on Wednesday night.
Pankaj Advani began his title defence with a narrow 3-2 victory over Surya Suwannasinh of Thailand on the second day of Asian Billiards Championships 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.
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.
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.
Fresh from a two-month break, ace Indian cueist Pankaj Advani is eyeing a good start in the new season with the Six-Red National Championships to be held in Bangalore from March 7-16.
'A dream moment', said the country's sports fraternity in unison as it celebrated the resurgence of Indian hockey at the Tokyo Olympics after the women's team advanced to its first ever semi-final, in Tokyo, on Monday.
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