INDIAN Snooker star Pankaj Advani has scored a hat-trick in the IBSF World Amateur Snooker Championship in Doha, Qatar.

Advani first won the title in 2003 when he was 18, then doubled his title of the event in 2015 and two years on has made it three.

The now 32-year-old is the only player in the event to have won it more than twice in its 42-year history.

Some of snooker's prestigious names have won or taken part in finals over the years including Jimmy White, Ken Doherty and Marco Fu.

In the last couple of years, it has seen the likes of new talent emerge from China including the talented Yan Bingtao, a winner in 2014 when he was only 14.

From World Amateur to Pro Ranking Finalist

Three years on and Bingtao, now 17, was competing in his first World Snooker ranking event final over the weekend in Belfast at the Dafabet Northern Ireland Open against the Legend Mark Williams who just pipped him to the winning post in a thrilling final frame decider.

The IBSF World Championships have come under strain in the past months due to the spat between them and the WPBSA which ended in them both parting company and meaning that the winner of the event no longer gets a tour card for the pro tour.

Advani, however, has been one in the past not to accept the offer to play on the pro tour instead of focusing on his Billiard endeavours.

Numbers dwindled in this edition of the event with no participation from the Home Nations, but the tournament in the past has been a bedrock for China and the Asian countries.

There are only three players in the history of the event who have won it twice. They are Welshman Gary Owen who won it twice on the spin in the very first two editions of the event in 1963/66.

It was then Ray Edmonds who picked up a double in 72 and 74, and, then, Paul Mifsud from Malta had success in 1985/6.

Mifsud last entered a pro tour event in 96 where, ironically, he came up against the great Mark Williams in the Malta Grand Prix first round losing 5 - 3.

Advani's highest break in snooker is a 145 and in Billiards 876.

In the event, Advani compiled the high break of 138 one of his five tons throughout.

Welsh Success

Former World number 8 Darren Morgan claimed the Master's title adding to his long list of amateur success.

You will remember 51-year-old Morgan having a great spell in the Riga Masters a couple of seasons ago where he reached a semi-final - his first since 1999.

The Welsh have produced some real talent in snooker history with Mark Williams at 42 still leading the front for the country in the cuesport snooker.

Ryan Day, who was another runner-up in the IBSF - won his first ranking event this season on the pro tour in Riga ironically.

10 Welsh players will be entering in this season's UK Championship in York in the pre TV qualifying round of 128 where an up and coming Welshman Jackson Page will be up against the 30-time ranking winner Ronnie O'Sullivan.

Belgium's Wendy Jans was a winner for the seventh time - a sixth on the spin since 2012 in the Ladies final seeing off a Thai 5 - 2.