Pankaj in title tilt at World Billiards

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Seven-time world champion Pankaj Advani stormed into the finals of the timed format of the World Billiards Championship in Leeds. Pankaj quelled tough challenge from fellow Indian and friend Dhruv Sitwala to stay in contention for his eighth world title and seventh World Championship title in billiards.

Showing great composure in the four-hour long encounter against the runner up in 2007 World Championships, Dhruv Sitwala, Pankaj pocketed the match 1381-867. Starting well, Pankaj scored a century break of 155 points and two double century breaks of 204 and 254 in the first half of the match to take a comfortable 600 points lead over Dhruv with the match poised at 881-281 at the end of two hours of play.

When the match resumed, Pankaj started from where he left off, extending his lead to win the match 1381-867 and secure his place in the finals where he will face veteran English cueist Mike Russell.

Reflecting on his semi-finals and looking forward to the summit clash against 11-time world champion Mike Russell, Pankaj said, "I had a good match in the semis and my focus is on the finals now. I am looking forward to playing Mike Russell and I want to do my best "

The only active player to compete at the highest level in both billiards and snooker, Pankaj came into the World Billiards Championship fresh from his campaign at the Professional Snooker Circuit. He has shown great brilliance in comfortably switching from snooker to billiards and easing his way into the finals of the timed format in World Billiards Championship.

Remaining unbeaten in the earlier rounds of the tournament, Pankaj entered the knock out rounds as the top seed in both timed and points format. Showing great calm and composure, Pankaj moved on from his loss to Peter Gilchrist in the quarterfinals of the points format and went on to beat another compatriot and seasoned campaigner Rupesh Shah with a 940 point margin in 180 minutes to storm into the semis of the timed format.

This year, owing to clash in schedules of the Billiards and Professional snooker circuits, Pankaj made the tough choice of picking the World Billiards Championship in Leeds over International Snooker Championships.