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Aditya Mehta managed to win his first Asian Snooker title in his third appearance in the Asian Snooker final ... Aditya Mehta become only third Indian to have won this title, before him Yasin Merchant won it twice in 1989 and 2001 then Alok Kumar in 2004 ... So after 8 years Indian won this prestigeous title ... India confirmed the Asian snooker title after Aditya and Pankaj Advani reached into final ... This was Pankaj's second Asian Snooker final but his title wait continues ... Three weeks back Pankaj lifted Asian Billiard title so he was hoping for grand double.

In the final, after losing the first frame Aditya won a crucial second frame with a 49 points break after being 40 down to level 1-1 ... Pankaj fought back by taking the lead 3-2 ... But after winning the next Aditya managed to level 3-3 and then take the lead 6-3 ... Pankaj won next 2 frames to make it 5-6 ... A battle of nerves happened in 12th frame ... Both players made a series of errors so frame was swinning in both directions ... Aditya held his nerves from 23-22 and scripted memorable win after winning the frame 59-41.

This is a first international title for Aditya ... While capturing title Aditya scored a big win over 17 yrs old current IBSF World Snooker Champion and ACBS Asian Under-21 Snooker Champion Iran's Hossein Vafaei Ayouri in the semi-final.

After group stage Aditya (Group A) and Pankaj (Group C) qualified for knock-out stage as group winners and Kamal Chawla on 2nd place from Group E.

At Asian Snooker Championship 2012, Doha, Qatar

Final
Aditya Mehta (IND) bt Pankaj Advani (IND) 7-5 (11-90(60), 72-57, 76-09, 00-139(116), 74-22, 56-60, 77-07, 72-64, 80-00, 40-82, 09-99(54), 59-47)

[SF] Aditya Mehta (IND) bt Hossein Vafaei Ayouri (IRI) 6-3 (51-27, 85-00, 60-72(60), 06-86(86), 49-79, 95(76)-00, 61(53)-17, 70-37, 89-00)
[SF] Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Noppon Saengkham (THA) 6-4 (25-79, 91-06, 48-69, 58-47, 00-90(84), 78-36, 00-71(67), 61(52)-16, 74(59), 06, 61-49)

[QF] Aditya Mehta (IND) bt Saleh Mohammed (AFG) 5-2 (69-54, 39-68, 83-39, 103-30, 50-63, 113(63)-01, 67-37)
[QF] Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Ehsan Heydari Nezhad (IRI) 5-0 (72-46, 71(54)-22, 66-01, 72(66)-01, 76-65)

[PQF] Aditya Mehta (IND) bt Muhammad Mustafa Shehab (UAE) 4-0 (83-20, 59-09, 64-32, 58-40)
[PQF] Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Ahmed Saif (QAT) 4-0 (71-15, 81-00, 70-18, 62-14)
[PQF] Hossein Vafaei Ayouri (IRI) bt Kamal Chawla (IND) 4-1 (76-36, 67-60,61(51)-62, 63-42, 64-46)

Mehta pips Advani in all-Indian final

Pankaj Advani bacame the first Indian player ever to reach a SF of a professional snooker tournament when he lost in the SF of European Tour-1 Paul Hunter Classic snooker tournament in Germany. Pankaj has had a great run in this tournament coming thru qualifying & beating the likes of former world no. 1 World No.1 John Higgins and the legendary Steve Davis.

This is the related news -

Pankaj Advani qualifies for semifinals

Wow! That is an amazing achievement.

Thanks Sameer, I was totally forgot that this year Pankaj and Aditya r playing on professional tour as Asian Snooker Championship finalists.

As Sameer mentioned, Pankaj bacame the first Indian player ever to reach a semi-final of a professional snooker tournament ... He lost against WR #1 Mark Selby in the semis but before that he defeated former WR #1 John Higgins in the third round.

Pankaj defeated Steve Davis but not in this tournament ... A week before he defeated Steve Davis (former WR #1 and 6 time World Champion) in International Championship Qualifiers, where Aditya also defeated legendary Jimmy White (former WR #2 and 6 time World Championship finalist).

Pankaj and Aditya participated in International Championship qualifying tournament at Sheffield, England ... Both won their 4 matches to qualify for the International Championship, which will play from October 28 to November 4 in Chengdu, China ... This is new ranking event with the highest prize money ever at a tournament in China, the winner to receive £125,000.

At European Tour Event One, Stadthalle, Fürth, Germany (Players Tour Championship)

[R1] Pankaj Advani (IND,71) bt Martin O'Donnell (ENG,81) 4-0
[R1] Aditya Mehta (IND,72) l Rory McLeod (ENG,33) 2-4

[R2] Pankaj Advani (IND,71) bt Ian Burns (ENG,79) 4-1
[R3] Pankaj Advani (IND,71) bt John Higgins (SCO,4) 4-1
[R4] Pankaj Advani (IND,71) bt Mark King (ENG,26) 4-3
[QF] Pankaj Advani (IND,71) bt Ryan Day (WAL,25) 4-1

[SF] Pankaj Advani (IND) l Mark Selby (ENG,1) 2-4


At International Championship Qualifiers, Sheffield, England

[Q-R1] Pankaj Advani (IND,71) bt Craig Steadman (ENG,83) 6-1
[Q-R1] Aditya Mehta (IND,72) bt Michael Leslie (SCO,92) 6-3

[Q-R2] Pankaj Advani (IND,71) bt Steve Davis (ENG,50) 6-5
[Q-R2] Aditya Mehta (IND,72) bt Mike Dunn (ENG,54) 6-3

[Q-R3] Pankaj Advani (IND,71) bt Alan McManus (SCO,47) 6-3
[Q-R3] Aditya Mehta (IND,72) bt Jimmy White (ENG,48) 6-5

[Q-R4] Pankaj Advani (IND,71) bt Michael Holt (ENG,31) 6-4
[Q-R4] Aditya Mehta (IND,72) bt Jamie Cope (ENG,25) 6-4

Good to see Aditya and Pankaj hunting as a pair -- loneliness has been an issue with our players who tried out the professional circuit. We should expect them to move into the top 20.

Good run by Pankaj there to go deep in both the events....
Congratulations to both Pankaj & Aditya on qualifying for the Upcoming International Championship to be held in China.....

International Snooker Ch - Chengdu

Aditya Mehta won a very close R1 match defeating Stuart Bingham 6-4....
Next up against Judd Trump today evening.......

[R1] Aditya Mehta 6-4 Stuart Bingham

[R2] Aditya Mehta v. Judd Trump

International Snooker Ch - Chengdu

Aditya Mehta lost to Judd Trump 6-0 without much of a fight.......

[R2] Aditya Mehta 0-6 Judd Trump

Pankaj and Aditya continue to try their luck in professional snooker ... They played in Welsh open qualifying ... Aditya started with upset win but lost in the final qualifying ... Pankaj scored dominating win against higher ranked opponent in the first round ... In the final qualifying round he faced former top-5 player Peter Ebdon ... Pankaj scored comeback win against Ebdon, he was 0-2 and 2-3 frames behind before winning this match ... In the main-draw first round he is facing 4th ranked Shaun Murphy.

At £250K Welsh Open 2013, Newport, Wales

[Q1] Pankaj Advani (IND,71) bt Peter Lines (ENG,58) 4-1 (88-50, 58-50, 19-69, 70-16, 107-0)
[Q1] Aditya Mehta (IND,72) bt Dave Harold (ENG,44) 4-2 (53-13, 70-26, 7-74, 81-30, 38-77, 78-61)

[Q2] Pankaj Advani (IND,71) bt Peter Ebdon (ENG,28) 4-3 (19-84, 29-92, 78-47, 67-66, 6-70, 75-49, 65-7)
[Q2] Aditya Mehta (IND,72) l Mark King (ENG,30) 0-4 (32-87, 32-79, 4-66, 47-61)

[R1] (Q) Pankaj Advani (IND,71) vs Shaun Murphy (ENG,4)

Pankaj scored biggest victory of his professional career ... He defeated #4 ranked Shaun Murphy in exciting match ... Pankaj won the 1st frame but Shaun scored 74 points break to win the 2nd ... In the 3rd frame Pankaj scored only 100+ break of the match, he comfortably won this frame after scoring 121 points break ... In 4th frame with help of 51 points break Pankaj take 3-1 lead ... Shaun fought back in 5th frame scoring 89 points break ... He continued with his momentum to win 6th frame and make it 3-all ... In the final frame Pankaj kept his nerves and with help of small breaks completed important victory of his career.

At £250K Welsh Open 2013, Newport, Wales

[R1] Pankaj Advani (IND,71) bt Shaun Murphy (ENG,4) 4-3 (76-15, 10-100, 121-8, 72-2, 36-103, 28-73, 64-15)

Edited - Happy to see news about this on Rediff
Welsh Open: Advani creates history, enters pre-quarters

Congrats to Pankaj on this remarkable win.
Hope he makes it in the professional circuit too.

Congrats Pankaj, I was getting worried when he was up 3-1 and missed relatively issues shots...but at 3-3 he was helped by lot of fouls ( I guess 16 points by his opponent) but amazing display of tactical game in that last game to win 4-3

Is this the breakthrough Pankaj has been waiting for? Awesome win. Now he has to go deep.

Next Pankaj is facing another world champion, Graeme Dott ... He was champion in 2006 and 2 times runner-up at World Championship, last-time in 2010.

At £250K Welsh Open 2013, Newport, Wales

[R2] Pankaj Advani (IND,71) vs Graeme Dott (SCO,15)

Pankaj Advani thrashes former world champion Graeme Dott 4-1.
He had 3 breaks of 50+ and in the end it was a convincing win to move into the Quarters.
Scores 73-7 (63), 74-1 (73), 39-84, 75-37, 100-1 (100)
In the QF, PA will face the winner of Judd Trump vs Andrew Higginson.