Rediff

Bangalore, Sep 10: In a repeat of his feat in 2005, Pankaj Advani added the ONGC IBSF World Billiards Championship (time format) title to the points format crown he won last week.

The 23-year-old from Bangalore defeated Devendra Joshi 2370-2020 to complete his domination in the tournament.

Three years back, in Malta, he also won the points and time format world titles.

In the six-hour final, split into three sessions of two hours each, at the Karnataka State Billiards Association, the 'wonder boy of billiards' had a jump-start, led from the word go and was unstoppable.

Aided by a triple century break and three double hundreds, Advani took a huge 1274-151 lead after the first session which turned out to be decisive.

Joshi covered ground in the second session, coming up with 1033 points to Advani's 1812, and then raised his game several notches in the final round, after a splendid break of 557, but it proved too little too late.

Both players admitted that the first session made all the difference.

"It (the win) could not have come at a better time," Advani said, adding that he was looking forward to it for a long time since this was on home turf.

"I am so thrilled. It's a perfect result in the end."

Joshi said Advani deserved to win as he is a very good player under pressure.

"First session made the difference," he added.