07 September,2009 09:23 AM IST | | Agencies
Pankaj Advani, whose entry was initially mislaid, forcing the competition to be re-drawn, beat Mike Russell, the defending and nine times champion, 2,030-1,253 to win the World Professional Billiards Championship at the Northern Snooker Centre, Leeds, The Guardian reports.
Advani was 77 behind Dhruv Sitwala with only 13 minutes remaining in Saturday evening's semi-final but then played out time with 142 to win by 55.
Russell, who comes from Redcar but now represents Qatar, recovered from the first-session deficit of 198 to beat a third Indian semi-finalist, Rupesh Shah, by 486. But he was always struggling against Advani, who made a break of 226 and six more centuries in becoming the second Indian to win the title in its 139-year history.
