India’s Pankaj Advani on his way to victory against Rupesh Shah.

INDIAN youngster Pankaj Advani has become Asian billiards champion, taking out the crown by defeating compatriot Rupesh Shah in a marathon final that lasted for more than four hours.

In the under-21 snooker tournament, Li Hang from China defeated countryman Li Yuan 6-1 to clinch the title.

The results, after eight days of competition in Yangon, showed the regional dominance of India and China in billiards and snooker respectively.

Myanmar’s competitors went into the tournament with high hopes but were largely disappointing. Aung San Oo achieved the best result, finishing fourth in the billiards after losing to Thailand’s Praprut Chaithanasakun in the third-place match. In the snooker tournament, only three Myanmar players reached knockout rounds.

But Myanmar showed their strength in billiards in the preliminary rounds, with Aung Htay defeating tournament runner-up and defending world champion, Rupesh Shah, 3-1. Myanmar’s top player, Kyaw Oo, also produced some good results, defeating eight-time world champion Geet Sethi, of India, 3-2 on the way to winning his group.

Luck was not on Myanmar’s side in the quarterfinal draw, however, with Aung San Oo and Aung Htay drawn to play each other. Aung San Oo triumphed 4-1, while Kyaw Oo lost to Rupesh Shah 1-4 in another quarter final. Rupesh Shah also defeated Kyaw Oo in last September’s World Billiards Championships in Singapore.

Aung San Oo was left as the only hope for the host nation in the semi finals but was unluckily drawn to play the eventual champion, Pankaj Advani, going down 0-4.

For most fans the match of the tournament was the semi final between defending world champion, Rupesh Shah and former world champion, Praprut, who put on a breathtaking display for the crowd. During a best-of-seven frame match, Praprut led 3-1 with 91 points to 36, which meant he needed only nine points to win the match.

But he failed to take his chance and Rupesh swept the next three frames, winning the match 4-3.

The billiards final was a tense affair but did not produce the quality of billiards the fans expected, possibly due to the pressure on the two players.

Normally in the 100-up billiards format, each frame takes between 10 and 15 minutes to complete. But the best-of-nine frame final took four hour and ten minutes, with the final frame alone taking about one hour to complete. Both players had their chances to close out the match but it was Advani who held his nerve.

Myanmar coach, Dr Min Naing, said the final match showed how important consistency was in billiards.

“To be honest, both Advani and Rupesh Shah didn’t play well in the final and didn’t reach their normal level of performance. [I think] this is because they play against each other a lot and know much about each other – and of course they were under a lot of stress,” said Dr Min Naing.

“Though our players were not successful at the tournament it was a great chance for Myanmar fans to watch some world-class players and now they know well how mentally hard the game of billiards is for the players,” he added.
Champion, Pankaj Advani is just 22 and has already won four world titles. In 2003 he became on the second Indian to take out the world snooker crown, after Om Agarwal in 1984.

But the young Indian star is very reluctant to get into the professional snooker circuit.

“Professional snooker is UK-centric, it’s almost a UK circuit, ideal for UK players and it’s not easy to play the circuit,” said Advani recently in India’s The Hindu newspaper.

“Had I entered the professional snooker circuit, it would have been difficult to handle billiards. I don’t want to give up billiards because it has given me so much in my life.”

“[Billiards] also brought him the 2006 Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award – the highest honour bestowed by the Government on an Indian sportsman,” The Hindu also pointed out.