Pankaj Advani

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pankaj Advani
Pankaj Advani
birthday 24th July 1985 (age 35)
place of birth Pune
nationality IndiaIndia India
professional 2012-2014
Prize money £ 60,888
Highest break 141 ( China Open 2014 , Q)
Century Breaks 16
Main tour successes
World championships -
Ranking tournament victories -
Minor tournament victories -
World rankings
Highest WRL place 56 (May – Aug. 2014)

Pankaj Arjan Advani ( Sindhi : पंकज आडवाणी, Urdu :پنڪج آڏواڻي, Kannada : ಪಂಕಜ್ ಅಡ್ವಾಣಿ ; *  July 24, 1985 in Pune ) is an Indian snooker and English billiards player .

Career

He won his first national snooker championship in 1997 in the youth field. He first attracted international attention when he won the IBSF World Amateur Snooker Championship in 2003 . A year later he reached the final of the ACBS Asian Snooker Championship , which he lost to his compatriot Alok Kumar .

In 2005 he won the IBSF World Championship in English Billiards with the amateurs in Malta . In the time format he beat the old master Geet Sethi with 2,242: 1,717, in the point format he defeated Devendra Joshi 6: 2. In 2007 he was successful against Dhruv Sitwala. Only one year later, there was another double victory in the time format against Devendra Joshi (2,368: 2,020), in the points format with 6: 1 against Geet Sethi. In 2010 and 2011 he was runner-up when he was defeated by Mike Russell from England. He also won the first of his six Asian Championships in English Billiards. In 2006 he also won the gold medal in singles at the Asian Games in English Billiards; He was able to repeat this success in 2010 .

In 2009 he won the professional World Billiards Championship, the most traditional and important title in English Billiards by beating Mike Russell in the final (2,030: 1,253).

From the 2012/13 season he played on the Snooker Main Tour , for which he qualified as vice-Asian champion of the year 2012 (the Asian champion Aditya Mehta had already qualified in another way). On the professional tour, he attracted attention at the Paul Hunter Classic 2012 when he won his first five games (including defeating multiple world champion John Higgins ) and reached the semifinals. Only the world number one and later tournament winner Mark Selby could end his winning streak.

At the International Championship 2012 , he qualified for the first time for the finals of a full ranking tournament. He canceled his participation because of the World Billiards Championship taking place at the same time . There he won his fourth title in time format and reached the quarter-finals in points format.

At the Welsh Open 2013 he qualified again for a final round. With victories over three former world champions ( Peter Ebdon , Shaun Murphy and Graeme Dott ) he reached the quarterfinals, where he was eliminated by Judd Trump . In front of a home crowd at the Indian Open 2013 , he also made it to the quarterfinals, but lost there to compatriot Aditya Mehta . He then reached the round of 32 at the Haikou World Open and the minor ranking tournament in Gloucester, the Kay Suzanne Memorial Cup 2013 .

As number 56 in the world rankings at the end of the season, he was able to qualify for another year on the professional tour. However, he did not take part in the first tournaments of the 2014/15 season and finally officially withdrew from the tour and from the association. The reason he gave was that for a professional snooker career he would have to spend half of the year in England, but he would also like to play more English billiards again and be with his family in India. However, he did not rule out a later return to professional snooker.

After retiring from snooker, on October 30, 2014, he became the first player, after his double victories in 2005 and 2008, to become double world champion in English Billiards for the third time .

In November 2015, with an 8: 6 win in the final against the Chinese Zhao Xintong, he became the amateur world champion in snooker for the second time and thus qualified for the Main Tour seasons 2016/17 and 2017/18 .

Personal

Advani was born in Pune, India, but grew up in Kuwait before his family moved to Bangalore , India for the Second Gulf War . His father died when Pankaj was six years old. He has an older brother named Shree.

Awards

Advani received the Arjuna Award in 2003 and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 2006, the highest sporting award in India. In 2009 he received the Padma Shri , the fourth highest civil order in India.

Tournament wins (selection)

snooker

English billiards

  • Asian Billiards Championship - 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2017, 2018
  • IBSF World Billiards Championship (time format) - 2005, 2007, 2008, 2015, 2018
  • IBSF World Billiards Championship (points format) - 2005, 2008, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
  • World Billiards Championships - 2009, 2012, 2014 (time format); 2014 (point format)
  • Asian Games (Singles) - 2006 , 2010
  • Indian Championship - 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2018
  • Indian Championship (Juniors) - 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Profile of Pankaj Advani on CueTracker (as of November 25, 2015)
  2. ↑ Prize Money Rankings after the World Championship 2014 (PDF; 198 kB) In: worldsnooker.com . World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association . Archived from the original on August 10, 2014. Retrieved May 31, 2014.
  3. ↑ World Rankings after the 2014 Wuxi Classic (PDF; 201 kB) In: worldsnooker.com . World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association . June 30, 2014. Archived from the original on July 1, 2014. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  4. ↑ World Rankings after the 2014 Australian Goldfields Open (PDF; 201 kB) In: worldsnooker.com . World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association . July 7, 2014. Archived from the original on July 7, 2014. Retrieved July 29, 2014.
  5. ↑ Player profile on World Games 2013, accessed July 28, 2013
  6. ↑ Pankaj Advani seals World Professional Billiards Championship win guardian.co.uk
  7. ^ Advani Withdraws from International Championship prosnookerblog.com
  8. ↑ Pankaj Advani wins World Billiards title . The Times of India . Retrieved April 14, 2013.
  9. ↑ Advani Gives Up Tour Card ( English ) In: worldsnooker.com . World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association . September 5, 2014. Retrieved September 9, 2014.
  10. ↑ Advani: first ever player to bag billiards triple double . The Hindu . October 30, 2014. Retrieved October 30, 2014.
  11. ↑ Vivek Pathak: Pankaj crowned with World Snooker title. In: ibsf.info. International Billiards & Snooker Federation , November 21, 2015, accessed November 25, 2015 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Advani, Pankaj
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Advani, Pankaj Arjan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian English pool and snooker player
DATE OF BIRTH July 24, 1985
PLACE OF BIRTH Pune , India