Two days after he participated in the IBSF World Billiards Championship, India’s two-time IBSF snooker champion, Pankaj Advani, will be back at Al Arabi Sports Club along with 87 other participants to fight it out for the men’s snooker title, starting today.
While Advani had won the 150-Up format in billiards on Sunday, he lost in the semi-finals of the longer format on Wednesday, losing to eventual champion Mike Russell.
Advani, who has 17 world titles in cue sports, will be looking to wrest back the snooker title he had won in 2015 and 2003.
Last year’s champion Soheil Vahedi of Iran is not named in the field. However, Vahedi’s opponent from last year, Andrew Pagett of Wales is in the field, and so is Pakistan’s 2012 champion Mohamed Asif.
Qatar will be represented by eight players, including Waleed Majid and Abdulatif Alfawal, the team that won the Arab Billiard Championship in Beirut, Lebanon, earlier this month.
The others in the team are Ahmed Saif, Ali al-Obaidli, Mohana al-Obaidli, Bashar Abdulmajeed, Khamis al-Obaidli and Zayed al-Khayarin.
Among the women, Wendy Jans of Belgium is back in the field to win her sixth straight title, and seventh overall. Jans has been in the final of every edition save for 2009 and 2010.
Three of her four opponents from the last five victories will do their best to stop the 34-year-old Belgian, including the 2016 finalist Amee Kamani of India, two-time finalist Anastasia Nechaeva of Russia, and two-time champion and 2012 finalist Ng On Yee of Hong Kong. Also in the field are 2015 billiards world champion Arantxa Sanchis of India.
Players in the three categories — men, women and masters — are from as many as 51 countries. The tournament concludes on Monday, November 27, with the finals for all three categories.
PRIZE MONEY
Men Championship minimum prize fund US$ 16,000
Championship Highest Break: US$500 + Certificate
Women Championship minmum prize fund US$ 6,000
Championship Highest Break: US$200 + Certificate
Masters Championship minimum prize fund US$ 8,000
Championship Highest Break: US$300 + Certificate
