Indian hopes to be fourth time lucky at ACBS Asian Snooker final
Vinay Nayudu
Doha
India's cue star Pankaj Advani has lined up a title clash with China's talented teen Lv Haotian in the 33rd ACBS Asian Snooker Championship being held at the Qatar Billiards & Snooker Federation Hall in Doha on Thursday.
It's a familiar territory for the 16-time world champion Advani, but a title which has eluded him since 2004.
The 31-year-old has lost three Asian Confederation of Billiard Sports (ACBS) snooker finals; first to compatriot Alok Kumar in 2004 in Jordan; then to India's Aditya Mehta in 2012 in Doha; and in 2015 to Pakistan's Hamza Akbar in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
In line to attain a historic Asian double having won Asian Billiards Championship earlier this month back home in India, Advani would surely be hoping to be fourth time lucky in Doha.
The cueist who hit the big scene as an 18-year-old is the top-seed here and faces an upcoming teen star in Haotian, seeded second. Their clash promises to be a mouth-watering one.
Advani accounted for Pakistan's Mohammad Bilal 5-0 (82-44, 67-12, 50-38, 66-8, 67-8) with flawless ease in the semi-final. Such was the Indian's smooth work that he didn't need any 50+ break in accounting for his 20th placed opponent.
On his part, Haotian overcame the last year's runner-up Mohamed Shehab of the UAE 5-3 to clinch a place in the final.
The 20th placed Emirati cueist began well winning the second frame after dropping the first with a break of 65 but couldn't sustain the tempo as the Chinese came back strong and won the final three frames with a commanding show and had breaks of 72, 71 and 54 in the 3rd, 6th and 8th frames respectively.
Haotian eventually won 52-42, 22-67, 78-9, 21-60, 14-68, 102-0, 75-0, 65-32.
Earlier in the quarter-finals, Advani was in full flow as he beat UAE's leading snooker player Mohammed al Joaker 5-1 to assure India's only medal in the event.
The second frame saw Advani's highest break of this tournament at 102.
In contrast, Haotian had to work hard in his last eight contest against Malaysian Keen Hoo Moh which he won 5-4 (8-91, 21-90, 84-13, 64-35, 38-61, 78-17, 1-68, 74-10, 65-25. While Moh had the highest break of 83 in the opening frame, Haotian had three top breaks of 75, 58 and 53.
The final of the premier non-professional snooker tournament in Asia on Friday will be played at 1 pm.