Rupesh,Advani win world titles

Cueists Rupesh Shah and Pankaj Advani brought double delight for Indians as they swept the world titles in point format and timed format,respectively in the final of the World Billiards

Cueists Rupesh Shah and Pankaj Advani brought double delight for Indians as they swept the world titles in point format and timed format,respectively in the final of the World Billiards on Sunday.

While it was Rupesh who beat Matthew Bolton 6-2 to bag his second title in this format,Advani won his seventh World Championship title,beating defending champion and English cueist Mike Russell,1895 8211; 1216

Rupesh won the first game comfortably but in the next game,Bolton levelled the match 1-1 at the Northern Snooker Centre.

The fifth game was the turning point in this match where Bolton missed cannon on 148 and Rupesh settled the score 3-2 in his favour.

In the next game,Rupesh made an unfinished break to increase the lead and was cruising along comfortably till the closing moments of the eighth game in which he missed the match winning red-pot. Bolton made a break of 83 points and went out of position on a score of 105.

Rupesh played safe even as Bolton attempted a long red pot. The Australian further attempted short jenny but ended up giving a chance to Rupesh to pot which the Indian converted into his match winning shot. Rupesh had earlier defeated big guns like Mike Russell in quarterfinal,Peter Gilchrist in semifinal.

Big scalps

Meanwhile,Advani won his seventh World Championship title,beating defending champion and English cueist Mike Russell,1895-1216.

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He had earlier thrashed Dhruv Sitwala 881-281 in the semis. Pankaj raced into a lead with a century break of 147 and a double century break of 298 within the first hour of the 5-hour long encounter in the finals of the timed format. A seasoned campaigner,Russel then scored a break of 397 to equalise,but Pankaj fought back strongly with breaks of 131 and 92 to take the lead in the first half of the match.

Pankaj started the second half with another century break of 128 and followed this with breaks of 94 and 108 to consolidate his lead. With a final century break of 119,Pankaj Advani beat 11-time Champion Mike Russell 1895- 1216 to win his seventh World Billiards Championship title,and his fourth in the timed format.

Aditya makes main round

Chengdu: India8217;s ace cueist Aditya Mehta defeated local player Zhu Yinghui in the wild card entry round at the International Snooker Championship at Chengdu,China. Mehta defeated Yinghui 65 to book a berth in the last 32 stage of the tournament at the Sichuan International Tennis Centre.

After an equal score of 22,Mehta took the lead in the fifth frame but lost out on the sixth to equal up again. After losing the seventh frame too,Mehta won back with a break of 107 for the scoreline to become 4-4.

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Then,it was Mehta all the way as he won the ninth frame to take the lead and seal the match in the deciding frame 6-5.

An excited Mehta said,This was indeed a superb win for me and I take great pride in having won this match. We kept playing close until the end. This is a good start of the tournament and I8217;m gearing up for the upcoming matches.