Advani brings cheer to Indian cue sport

Chennai: The rising performance graph of Pankaj Advani in billiards highlighted the country’s cue sport scene in 2009. The titles that he won in the Asian and world professional championships confirmed his status as the best billiards player at the moment on the planet.

Needless to say, the 24-year old Bangalorean brought much-needed cheer to the Indian cue sport, though his premature exit at the IBSF World snooker championship in Hyderabad took some gloss off the otherwise good year. Advani was among the overwhelming favourites at the Hyderabad event in November, but a shock defeat in the round of 32 strengthened the belief that he has yet a long way to go in snooker, notwithstanding his stellar achievements in billiards. Advani admitted that an “overdose” of competitive play had rendered him a tad stale and this was evident at the Asian Indoor Games in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where he crashed out in the billiards semi-finals.The event, however, provided some solace to the Indian camp as Manan Chandra, Aditya Mehta and Brijesh Damani combined to win the team snooker gold medal. The best of Advani’s performance came at the World billiards championship where he scalped one of the all-time greats Mike Russell in the final. The temperamental Englishman, now settled in the Gulf region, was the last of the top players Advani had not beaten and in this context, this victory meant much more than the title itself. As well as Advani, who began the year by winning a double at the National championship, performed in billiards, the other top Indians, notably Chandra and Mehta, had little to show on the international snooker scene.The surprise packet was Bhopal’s Kamal Chawla who made it to the quarter-finals in Hyderabad where 16 Indians survived the league phase to qualify for the knock-out round of 64. However, only veteran Yasin Merchant, Lucky Vatnani and Chawla progressed to the pre-quarter-finals. The 30-year old Chawla, who practises in Bangalore, performed beyond expectations considering that he has never been a top-four ranked player in India. However, he had little to offer against eventual finalist Igor Figueredo of Brazil, losing 1-6 in the quarter-finals. Meanwhile, barring Chitra Magimairajan’s runner-up finish at the Australian Open snooker championship, it has been a rather tepid year for the Indian women cueists of whom a lot more was expected at the World championship in Hyderabad. The Bangalore-based Chitra did well to make the quarter-final round at Hyderabad, but finished rather tamely, as did India No.2 Vidya Pillay from Chennai who blew a 2-0 lead against Australia’s Kathy Parashis and lost 3-4 in the pre-quarter-finals. National champion Meenal Thakur, after defeating her younger sister Anuja Chandra, moved the quarter-finals but came up short against an inspired Parashis to lose 2-4. Overall, the year 2009 has been a mixed bag for Indian cueists. Advani, with seven World (six in billiards and one in snooker) and two Asian (billiards) titles, has emerged as the new standard-bearer after taking over the baton from billiards ace Geet Sethi who, at 48, is obviously in the twilight of his illustrious career, notwithstanding his quarter-final finish in the Masters category in Hyderabad. IANS