Pankaj Advani is fast winning every important snooker title in the country. On Friday he added the CCI one when thrashing Yasin Merchant 7-2 to win the PD Avasia Challenge Cup.

Importantly he won it  in the platinum jubilee year of the club beating the holder Yasin, a two-time Asian champ and Asian Games doubles gold winner Yasin Merchant. Advani picked up Rupees One Lakh prize money and also for the highest break of 135. The Rs.1.47 lakh prize for the dream break of 147 went abegging.

The best-of-13 frame didn't go the distance with Advani winning 7-2. It may have but for Yasin losing the first two frames in which he had the upper hand. It the first it was a foul-and-miss by Merchant that gave Advani the chance and he made capital of it with a doubled blue. Had he missed that colour ball would have sufficed for Yasin to go one-up. Instead he was 0-3 down before he struck a purple patch with a 47 and 71 to win the fourth.

If Merchant could win just one more frame after that it was because Advani's secure play was of a high standard. He realized that he had to keep it tight as Merchant was striking the ball better than him and any misses of his may have cost him dear.

That removed some of the lustre of a final many had high expectations of. But it was effective snooker that drew praise for Advani from chief guest, billiards great Mike Ferreira who said, "For the mix of titles Pankaj has it makes him unique among Indian cue players. Only Paul Mifsud has won the world snooker and billiards titles," Ferreira reminded us. Ferreira also reminded about CCI's rich cue sports tradition. "Greats like Horace Lindrum, Leslie Driffield, Kingsley Kennerly have played at this hall. Kennerly was playing at the CCI when Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead in 1948 and the hall emptied. The Avasia Cup was the second most important tournament after the Nationals." The trophy was presented by Jimmy Avasia, son of Pirojsha Avasia after whom the tournament is named. Jimmy said, "There was no western Indian then. My father held the highest break record of 46 then."

Advani said, "It wasn't a great final, I didn't expect to win so easily. When he claimed the fourth frame I knew I had to play a strong safety game. When you give him the chance you can't stop him."

Merchant said, "I lost to a better player. I would have liked to have defended the title. But these youngsters had better watch out. I beat Manan Chandra. I know exactly how I can get back into the groove."