Eighteen-year-old world snooker champion, Pankaj Advani, quietly and smoothly charts his course to victory

Teen wonder, Pankaj Advani, has taken Indian snooker to unimaginable new heights. World snooker champion at 18, he has to his advantage, guts, composure, talent, and of course, youth. For somebody who has been involved with the game since the age of 11, he wears his win like a shirt, with no great excitement or expression. Ask him what it felt like winning the championship at Jiangmen, China and he says, “Frankly, I didn’t feel anything.” He just pumped his fist in the air to show his victory. In the quiet world of snooker, where the cue and ball glide silently, Advani’s expressionless face is a great advantage. “I don’t show much reaction and so my opponent can’t read me.”

The new year has seen him sweeping the stakes in Gwalior, where he won both the billiards and snooker National junior championships. Not content with the junior level, his attempt at the senior snooker championship, also in Gwalior, saw him emerge as runner-up.

But all his success at winning titles has not compensated for the disappointment he has had to nurse when he couldn’t make it to England for the training programme. That would have meant three weeks intensive coaching, every few months. The English training would have stood him in good stead because it is “more in sync with the demands of a professional game.” Lack of funds at the right time and the paucity in snooker sponsorship has had him shelve the foreign training. So, May will see him in China making a bid for the Asian under-21 snooker championship. In the meanwhile, he is busy with his first year B.Com examinations looming large on the horizon – so till then snooker and billiards will be on hold.

What began as a casual outing with his older brother – a visit to the pool parlour when he was 11 – grew into a magnificent obsession. Barely tall enough for the table, his enthusiasm saw him join the Karnataka State Billiards Association for a two-month summer camp. Coach, Arvind Savur quickly recognised his talent and saw that it was more than a whim. Savur who has made it to the semi-finals twice for world championships, wants his students “to go and win for me.”

Advani’s daily quota of five hours of perfecting the game, apart from watching videos of snooker championships, means his academic pursuit, his B.Com degree has taken a back seat. As he says, “I have to make a lot of sacrifices, even socially.”