Advani falters in final hurdle at World Billiards

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Indian cueist Pankaj Advani faltered in the finals once again as England's Mike Russell successfully defended his Point format title in the IBSF World Billiards Championship being played in Carlow, Ireland.

In a repeat of last year's final in the Point format, former champion Advani went down 3-6 to ten-time World champion Russell in the summit clash on Saturday night at The Ivy Rooms.

In the last edition of the IBSF championship played in Pune, Advani had failed to defend both his titles and lost to English cueist Russell in both point and time formats.

In 2008, Advani had won both the titles in the Point and Time formats, defeating compatriots Geet Sethi and Devendra Joshi, respectively.

In the final, Russell controlled every thing from the beginning and demonstrated a fantastic billiards in first four games where he produced four unfinished breaks (three 150s and one 148) to almost outplay Advani.

In the fifth frame, Russell again scored a break of 114 with just one game away from lifting the title.

However, in the sixth game, a small mistake on an attempt of cannon kept him on wait for some more time as the Indian bounced back with a fantastic 143 break (unfinished) to narrow the deficit.

One game win boosted Advani's confidence as the seven-time world champion again penalised the Englishman with 120 unfinished for his mistake on cannon.

Already pocketed two games, Advani smashed an unfinished break of 143 in the next game to put Russell on the backfoot.