Advani leads in best-of-15 final at IBSF World Snooker C'ship

Eyeing his 15th world title, ace Indian cueist Pankaj Advani was leading 5-2 against young Chinese sensation Zhao Xintong at the break in the best-of-15 final of the IBSF World Snooker Championship here today.
Having already assured India of a medal, Advani warded off a tough challenge from German cueist Lucas Kleckers 7-5 in the final-four encounter late last night.
The Bengaluru cueist though was in top form today when he captured the first two frames with breaks of 106 and 56 in the first and the second respectively against the 18-year-old Chinese opponent.
Xintong took the third with a break of 53 and looked in total control of the fourth when he got trapped by a deadly snooker behind the brown ball. Unable to convert the snooker, Xintong gave Advani a half chance at the top end which was immediately punished with a spectacular opening red stun pot along the top cushion. Advani thereafter took a 3-1 lead.

A deadly safety play by Advani once again put Xintong glued to his seat as India's posterboy of cue sport kept trapping the teenager inside the baulk line to get openings and went ahead by 4-1.
Xintong, who was seen to be at the receiving end for the first time in the championship, was not as smooth and controlled as he had been all through to the tournament and unexpectedly landed a couple of times in awkward positions while on a break.

However, the talent was visible as every time he came out of the situations unfolding his vast repertoire of strokes to win the sixth frame with a finely crafted break of 72 points and brought down the deficit to 2-4.

In the seventh frame, Advani, well aware of the wide range of potting and break building capability of his opponent, never got tempted and applied his extraordinary cushion skills to every time come inside the baulk line and keep Xingtong at bay.
At this juncture one could see Xingtong's restlessness as he ultimately succumbed to the game plan of Advani. Calm, composed and sharp as always, Advani made full use of the opportunity and crafted a well-controlled break of 74 points to race ahead to a 5-2 lead at the interval.
Earlier in the women's section, cueist Amee Kamani squandered her opportunity to be the first women player from India to reach the finals of the Championship.

Amee lost the best-of-seven semi-final battle against Anastasia Nechaeva of Russia, who ultimately lost the title to Wendy Jans of Belgium.