IBSF Billiards C'ship: Pankaj Advani wins his 18th Billiards World Title

Pankaj Advani, the marquee Indian cueist, clinched his 18th World Billiards Title at the 2024 IBSF 150-up Billiards Championships in Doha, Qatar on Saturday.

He claimed the title with a 4-2 victory against Robert Hall of England in the final. This was his seventh successive title at the 150-Up format of the IBSF Billiards Championship.

Pankaj started the match in a dominating fashion and won the first three frames of the match (151-94, 151-0, 150-84). However, then Hall won two consecutive frames to Hall (151-74, 151-6) to keep his hopes alive in the match.

The 39-year-old Indian came back strong in the sixth frame, winning it comfortably with a margin of 152-46 to confirm his victory in the tournament.

With this, he is now a 28-time International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF) World champion with 18 Billiards titles, one World Team Billiards title, and 9 titles across Various snooker competitions.

Earlier, another Indian player Sourav Kothari settled with the bronze medal in the 150-up competition after losing his semi-final match (2-4) to Pankaj.

On the other hand, India's lone representative in the semifinal of the World Masters Snooker Championship lost his match 2-4 to Thailand's Issara Kachaiwong and settled with the bronze medal.