Pankaj Advani was crowned World professional billiards champion after he outclassed veteran Mike Russell in the final at Leeds. The champion from India defeated his Qatari-counterpart 2031-1253.

Advani created history by becoming only the second Indian to win this coveted prize, in its 139 years of history, after two-time world champion, Geet Sethi.

With this win, Advani now holds the prestigious record of being the current World professional billiards champion, current IBSF World billiards champion, the Asian Games billiards champion, the Asian billiards champion and the National billiards champion. What’s even more credit-worthy is that he is only 24-years old.

Russell is of English decent but now lives and represents Qatar. He has won the title a record nine times and has been a finalist at the event 17 times, which makes Advani’s feat even more admirable.

The 41-year-old Russell had shown early glimpses of not being at his best in his last two matches. But he always had the arsenal to surprise his opponents with a comeback. However, Advani started brilliantly which meant Russell had no room for error. He succumbed to the pressure and was eventually routed by his opponent who is 17 years his junior.

In the opening hour of the contest itself, Advani was in unforgiving form as he registered runs of 132, 93, 170, 91, 226, 93 and 101. Russell seemed perturbed as he had rarely been put under this kind of pressure in the earlier stages of the tournament. From thereon, Advani kept building on his lead. The mid-match interval saw Advani with a huge 1070-418 advantage. This was exactly the psychological boost Advani needed over his more-experienced opponent.

Like Russell, Advani too survived some scary moments in the quarter-finals (against David Causier) and in the semi-finals (against Dhruv Sitwala) before eventually winning both contests. But Advani relied on something that he has made his trademark in the recent past – saving the best for the last. He knew he had to dominate the match from the start against Russell and that’s exactly what he did to win the tournament.

Russell acknowledged the better player on the day saying, “Pankaj is young and hungry and is a great potter. He doesn’t care where the balls go. He can recover from any situation.”

This further goes to show Advani’s acute concentration levels, which will only get better with age