In 2003, Pankaj Advani made a significant breakthrough by winning the World Amateur Snooker Championship, defeating Pakistani Saleh Mohammad 11-6 in the final. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle. That Advani has Ishpeet’s number is evident from the fact that he repeated his NSCI ‘Baulkline 3.0’ win over Ishpreet which occurred last year.

Pankaj Advani was born on 24 July 1985 to a Sindhi family in Pune, India. Advani spent his initial years in Kuwait before moving to Bangalore, India. He received his education at the Frank Anthony Public School, Bangalore and completed his bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Sri Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain College. He received training in snooker from former national Snooker champion Arvind Savur.

Ishpreet started positively and constructed breaks of 101 and 61 to win the opening three frames. Advani compiled a break of 55 to pocket the fourth and halt Ishpreet’s run. Advani’s success is more than just a personal triumph – it is a source of motivation for young athletes.

Off-side: Manu Bhaker and the grace of true champions

Advani had earlier got the better of Amir Sarkhosh of Iran in the final of the Asian Snooker Championship. He thinks cue sports have a bright future in the country, and hopes that the federations do something about it. Advani is happy that his 2016 ended with his sweet 16th, and is now heading to Mumbai to play another snooker tournament.

However, on the few occasions that they have been included, Pankaj Advani made the most of it. At the age of 10 his acumen for snooker came to the notice of Arvind Savur after being introduced to the sport by his elder brother Dr. Shree Advani, a noted Sport & Performance Psychologist. He won his first ever title at the age of 11 and went on to set several records at the state and national levels. In the year 2000 he won his first Indian Junior Billiards Championship title and then went on to win it again in 2001 and 2003. In 2003 he not only won the Indian Junior Snooker and Billiards Championship, he also won the senior snooker champions which made him the youngest National Snooker champion at age 17.

Champions Trophy 2025

Pankaj Advani is an Indian professional English billiards and visit this web-site snooker player. He is widely regarded as the most successful Indian billiards player after Geet Sethi. India’s sports landscape has been graced by many champions, but few have shown the consistency and brilliance of Pankaj Advani. Advani etched his name deeper into the annals of history by clinching his 28th world title and seventh consecutive win at the IBSF World Billiards Championship in Doha.

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• He now holds five Asian snooker titles (across 15-red, 6-reds, and team formats) alongside nine Asian billiards titles, and his two Asian Games gold medals (2006, 2010) further highlight his dominance.
• He is widely regarded as the most successful Indian billiards player after Geet Sethi.

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• Having already accomplished this feat in billiards, completing it in snooker would make him the only player in history to do so in both disciplines.

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• When you talk about snooker or billiards, one name that instantly comes to mind is Pankaj Advani.

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• In the year 2003, at the age of just 17, Advani became the youngest player ever to become the National Snooker champion.

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• These are white, yellow and red with the former two eligible to act as strikers.

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18 years later, Pankaj Advani continues to amaze everyone with his performances and is one of India’s most consistent sportspersons. He made his international debut in 2002 as a finalist in the Asian English Billiards Championship. Advani hasn’t looked back since then, and over two decades later, he has seen it all and done it all in cue sports. Alongside Geet Sethi, Pankaj Advani is the greatest cueist produced by India, but by no means is he done yet.

In a hard-fought final, he triumphed over England’s Robert Hall with a scoreline of 4-2, reaffirming his unparalleled dominance in the sport. With six consecutive frame wins, the 28-time world champion completed an astonishing turnaround to seal the title — his third in a row at CCI. Pankaj Advani competed in the men’s English billiards singles category. At the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, a relatively young Advani showed his class. He beat fellow Indian Ashok Shandilya 3-1 in the final to bag the gold medal.

He defeated compatriot Aditya Mehta 6-1 in the semi-finals, before ousting Malaysia’s Moh Keen Ho 7-5 in the summit clash. In doing so, Pankaj Advani became the first cueist ever to hold both the world and continental titles in 6-red snooker at the same time. “I have often heard that snooker is an expensive sport to play and it is played by the rich. In fact, I can tell you clearly, tennis and golf are much more expensive than snooker and billiards. In cue sports, all you need is a cue, and the rest falls in place if you are naturally talented,” he says. Pankaj received the Trophy and a cheque of Rs. 3.5 lakh, while Ishpreet received Rs. 1.75 lakh.