Pankaj Advani wins National 6-red snooker title

After a successful campaign in the IBSF World Billiards Championship (point format) in Bengaluru a week earlier, Advani had only a few days before the new challenge, but the 31-year-old, 16-time world champion showed why he is regarded as one of the best in cue sports.

Although it is not his main sport, Advani began as favourite and went on to reclaim the title that he won in the inaugural edition in Bengaluru in 2010.

The ace cueist won the IBSF World 6-red Snooker Championship in Egypt in 2014 and successfully defended the crown the following year.

Earlier this year, he annexed his maiden Asian Snooker title, which also came in the shorter version of the sport.

In Mumbai, local youngster Chadha was unable to stop the Bengaluru-based champion.

Advani will now switch his attention to the Asian and World Championships in 6-red snooker that is scheduled in 2017 as India's representative.

Only last week Advani had urged the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India to make the sport more popular in the country. “It (billiards) definitely has the capacity to have visual appeal and become spectator-friendly, and it is the responsibility of the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India to, first of all, get it on television. I think that is the most important thing if you want mass appeal and more people knowing about the sport. That’s where the federation needs to step up and pull up their socks,” he told Mumbai Mirror newspaper.