Pankaj beats Joshi for time format title, makes it fine double

Bangalore, Sep 10 (UNI) Reigning World Billiards and Snooker Champion Pankaj Advani staved off a late challenge from former Asian Champion Devender Joshi to annex the ONGC IBSF World Billiards Championship (time format) with a 2368-2022 win in the final here today.

The 23-year-old Bangalore lad thus completed a fine double following his win in the IBSF World title in points format in which he trounced Geet Sethi on September five.

The defending champion, who had tamed nine times world champion and legendary cueist Geet Sethi in the semi final yesterday, made the contest one-sided in the first two sessions before Joshi made last ditch efforts in the final session.

Joshi, known for his fighting qualities made a gallant attempt to bridge the gap with a break of 557 in the final session but early lead helped the youngster to win the title.

Pankaj began with a break of 219 in the third visit in the first session and then repeated the feat by notching up big breaks of 327, 231 and 274 later in the session to race to a commanding 1274-151 lead at the end of the two hour session.

He increased his lead to 1812-1033, despite Joshi making a determined comeback in the second session. Joshi had breaks of 338 and 364 but the huge deficit he had in the first round made it impossible for him to bridge the gap.

In the third session Joshi showed his fighting spirits by compiling an amazing 557 in his 37th visit and reduced the lead by 433 points but Pankaj always kept a triple century lead over his Mumbai opponent and emerged as a worthy winner.

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