World Billiards champion Pankaj Advani got off to slow start before winning the match
Pankaj Advani won his opening match at IBSF World Snooker Championship without much trouble
Bengaluru: Playing his first competitive snooker match since June, title favourite Pankaj Advani got off to a slow start on the opening day of the IBSF World Snooker Championships at the Sree Kanteerava Indoor Stadium here on Wednesday. The 29-year-old home boy, who last played snooker at the World 6-Red Championship in Egypt, slackened marginally after the first two frames.
But the champion cueist who recently won twin titles at the World Billiards, was never in danger of being upset by an error-prone Keen Hoo Moh from Malaysia and prevailed 4-2 (71-34, 85-0, 25-62, 46-58, 67-19, 69-44) in a match that last a shade under two hours.Barring a few like R. Umadevi and Arantxa Sanchis, most of the other Indians had a happy first day of action.
In the opening frame of their evening contest, 27-year-old Moh broke the bunch and missed a top left red to open up the table for Advani who pounced on the opportunity to put together a break of 60.In the following frame, Advani was in silken touch. On his first visit he was poetry in motion as he went about stitching together a fluent break. Just when it looked like he was set for a century break, Advani failed to clear a red on the top left which saw his break end prematurely at 85.
Over the next two frames, Advani, the owner of 12 world crowns in snooker and billiards, looked complacent as he played a few poor safety shots, especially in the fourth frame. Trailing 46-51, Advani indulged in a battle for the black with Moh and eventually gifted his opponent the ball as his safety shot wasn’t safe enough.
With the scores at 2-all in the best-of-seven-frames contest, Advani cashed in on his challenger’s misplaced aggression and with breaks of 32 and 44 in the last two frames, claimed the match.
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