Former Northern Ireland Open champion Mark King has been banned from snooker for five years after being found guilty of match fixing, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) said on Friday.
Newly-crowned World Professional billiards champion Pankaj Advani on Tuesday said he was hopeful that his title would inspire others to take up the game and win more laurels for the country.
The event was scheduled to be held in Kochi from September 18-22 but the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) said they would explore alternative dates.
Three Indians, including reigning World champion Pankaj Advani, moved into the quarter-finals of the World Professional Billiards championship following clinical victories over their respective opponents on the second day of the event in Leeds. The 25-year-old Advani notched his third straight victory in Group A, brushing aside the challenge of compatriot Devendra Joshi 818-469 to advance to the last-eight stage at the Northern Snooker Centre.
National champion Alok Kumar blanked Praput Chaithanasukan of Thailand 6-0 to win the Asian Billiards Championship at the Olympic Stadium of Kish Island, Iran, on Thursday.
Reigning champion Pankaj Advani stayed on course for a second successive World Professional Billiards title after securing contrasting wins over compatriot Sushrat Pandia and England's Martin Goodwill on the opening day of the event in Leeds.
Pankaj Advani's hopes of winning the World Professional Billiards title for the second consecutive time went up in smoke after compatriot Dhruv Sitwala registered a hard fought 723-608 victory over the reigning champion in the quarter-finals of the event in Leeds.
The Indian billiards fraternity on Monday showered rich praise on Pankaj Advani after he defeated defending champion and nine-time winner Mike Russell of Qatar in the final and claimed the World Professionals Billiards Championship.
Pankaj Advani failed to defend his IBSF billiards title in the Points format, as he went down 0-6 to nine-time World champion Mike Russell of England in a one-sided final in Pune on Monday. Russell, who lost to Advani in the World Professional Billiards championship in Leeds last year, produced an impeccable display of cue control and potting to beat the Indian 151-129, 151-00, 151-29, 150-20, 151-09, 151-125.
Indian ace Pankaj Advani notched up a thrilling win over compatriot Dhruv Sitwala in the semi-final to set up a title clash with nine-time winner and defending champion Mark Russel in the World Professional Billiards Championship in Leeds. Advani edged past Sitwala 1037-972 in an extremely close match.
Pankaj Advani, Rupesh Shah and Dhruv Sitwala kept Indian hopes alive after registering contrasting wins in the quarter-finals of the 2009 World Professional Billiard Championship in Leeds on Saturday.
Aiming for his sixth title, India's ace cueist Geet Sethi shrugged off an early loss to beat Robert Hall on Wednesday and end day one of the 2009 World Professional Billiards Championship on a high.
Fresh from a two-month break, ace Indian cueist Pankaj Advani is eyeing a good start in the new season with the Six-Red National Championships to be held in Bangalore from March 7-16.
India's Pankaj Advani is the new World Professional Billiards Champion. He beat the defending champion, Mark Russel, 2030-1253 to win the title.
Merchant showed the door to Alok Kumar 4-2 in a well-fought quarter-final clash.
Defending champion Geet Sethi made a late charge against England's Mike Russell but failed to cross the semi-final hurdle at the World Professional Billiards title in Leeds on Sunday.
British snooker player Stephen Lee was handed a 12-year ban on Wednesday after being found guilty of match-fixing.
Billiards and snooker launched an unexpected bid to win a spot on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics sports programme, saying sharp global rise in popularity helped their case.
India's poster boy of cue sports, Pankaj Advani, an eight-time world champion, had to miss the event due to his qualification for the 'International Championship', one of the most prestigious major ranking snooker events.
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