For a man with 23 world and 10 Asian crowns, adding one each to the kitty might not be out of the ordinary. For Pankaj Advani though, world title No. 24 and Asian title No. 11 indeed was.
The ace Indian cueist completed a back-to-back sweep of trophies earlier this week in Doha, winning the IBSF 6-Red Snooker World Cup after successfully defending the Asian Snooker Championship—he was unbeaten in 15 matches across two weeks. Even as one of the
For a man with 23 world and 10 Asian crowns, adding one each to the kitty might not be out of the ordinary. For Pankaj Advani though, world title No. 24 and Asian title No. 11 indeed was.
The ace Indian cueist completed a back-to-back sweep of trophies earlier this week in Doha, winning the IBSF 6-Red Snooker World Cup after successfully defending the Asian Snooker Championship—he was unbeaten in 15 matches across two weeks. Even as one of the world’s top cueists, it was hardly a show Advani had expected to produce on return to international competition after almost two years, the pandemic having drastically curtailed his training.
“I still can’t believe I’ve come back with two titles,” Advani said. “If anybody had asked me before the events what my expectations were, I would have told them zero.”
That’s because the last meaningful competition the 36-year-old from Bengaluru had was his winning the national snooker title in Ahmedabad in March 2020, days before the nationwide lockdown began. He played another national level invitational tournament in Bengaluru a year later, an entirely different setting to taking on cueists from 19 (for the Asian championship) and 29 countries (World Cup). “It was the most under-prepared for these championships I’ve ever been,” he said.
Under motivated and under trained too. It was only in July that Advani began training full-fledged for the first time since March last year. In the 15 months in between, he only had sporadic practice for a month or two, that too when he had access to a table in Bengaluru, a tall order amid the lockdown and strict norms for reopening indoor sport. Advani had the virus last December and was busy with his wedding before the second lockdown.
“Everything was stop-start,” Advani said. “The first real hit I had since the pandemic was in June last year, but I halted it after a few days because there were no tournaments in sight. I only had about three months of training since March last year. There were so many forced breaks. There was lack of motivation. Only when these tournaments were announced that I pushed myself to go out and play.”
Even for someone who has spent more time at the table than away from it for over two decades, such a long pause from playing effectively meant starting from the base again. “It’s so brutal. It’s like I had to learn snooker all over again,” he said. “Just the feel, the way you hold your cue, the stance, when you strike the ball, hit that sweet spot…it’s so difficult to get all that back. Because it’s a game of muscle memory, hand-eye coordination and long periods of concentration. Now, imagine going from concentrating on Netflix shows or other things at home for a year-and-a-half to having to tune in again to perform at the highest level. Suddenly having to press the switch on button became extremely difficult given the circumstances.”
So, before he got down to hitting with a sparring partner, Advani was compelled to go solo to regain his touch. He came to Mumbai in July as things began opening up after the second wave, got the requisite permissions and made Khar Gymkhana his training base for two months before competition.
“The ideal way to prepare for a tournament is a combination of solo practice and sessions with a sparring partner. But when you’re getting back after so many months, you need to practice solo, learn how to time the ball, deliver the cue in a straight line and such things. Only once you have those basics in place and are confident you will be able to strike and deliver the way you used to can you test yourself against an opponent,” Advani said.
“So to get back to some sort of rhythm and feel for the game and to achieve this is something special,” he said. “I was aware I was not going to be at my best. Still, I took the chance, did the best I could—physically, technically, mentally. I feel if you approach things with a fresh perspective, you will get the desired results.”
Advani got married to Saniya Shadadpuri, a celebrity makeup artist, in January, days after recovering from a mildly symptomatic Covid-19 bout and months after staying put at home playing word games to improve vocabulary, studying about the stock market and raising awareness about finding beds and medicines in the fight against the virus. “It’s a new phase of life. At the beginning it was very difficult to explain to her (Saniya) what my routine is in terms of preparing for tournaments, because they weren’t any,” Advani said with a smile. “Now she has understood. It was a good time to get married because we got so much time to spend with each other.”
Professionally too it is a shot in the arm for Advani, the double feat coming after a long, bumpy road to regaining his feel on the table. “It’s a huge boost in terms of regaining the motivation and confidence. Confidence is the key, no matter how good you are. At the end of the day, performance talks. And it’s the performance in these two events that will give me immense belief moving forward,” Advani said.
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