The senior women's snooker championship reached the semifinal stages, with Neena Praveen, Vidya Pillai, Sunithi Damani and Arantxa Sanchis making the cut, at the Hash10-World Sim Nationals here on Sunday.
Tamil Nadu was assured of a spot in the final, with Neena Praveen slated to play Vidya Pillai in the first semifinal, though both players had to struggle to get past their quarterfinal encounters.
Upset of the dayADVERTISEMENT
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Sunithi Damani, who caused the upset of the day in packing off former National snooker and billiards champion Meenal Thakur, will take on Arantxa Sanchis in the other knock-out fixture.
Sunithi's result was the only straightforward match of the quarterfinals, with all of the other semifinalists losing at least a frame. Vidya Pillai had the worst of it, losing the first two frames of the best of five contest, before coming back to win 3-2 (45-60, 34-44, 44-36, 54-17, 42-35) against former World ladies billiards champion Chitra Magimairaj.
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Neena Praveen too was stretched all the way by Keerath Bhandaal, who has been having a good outing this tournament, before prevailing 3-2 (17-55, 54-34, 56-44, 20-62, 56-26). Arantxa rode out a mid-match stutter as she shrugged off the loss of the third frame to get the better of the newly crowned National women's billiards champion Uma Devi 3-1 (71-51, 61-40, 20-71, 67-23).
The results: Senior women's snooker:Quarterfinals (best of five frames): Neena Praveen (TN) bt Keerath Bhandaal (Del) 3-2 (17-55, 54-34, 56-44, 20-62, 56-26); Vidya Pillai (TN) bt Chitra Magimairaj (Kar) 3-2 (45-60, 34-44, 44-36, 54-17, 42-35); Arantxa Sanchis (Mah) bt Uma Devi (Kar) 3-1 (71-51, 61-40, 20-71, 67-23); Sunithi Damani (WB) bt Meenal Thakur (Mah) 3-0 (47-32, 39-27, 52-13).
Pre-quarterfinals (best of three frames): Chitra bt Asha (TN) 2-1 (41-45, 42-35, 59-6); Uma Devi bt Heena Khandelwal (Mah) 2-0 (52-29, 52-47); Vidya bt Ashwini Puranik (MP) 2-0 (64-30, 54-18); Meenal bt Neeta Sangavi (Mah) 2-1 (52-18, 33-37, 52-11); Keerath bt I. Lahiri (AP) 2-0 (50-23, 51-35); Arantxa bt Indira Gowda (Kar) 2-0 (47-37, 33-18); Sunithi bt Varsha Sanjeev (Kar) 2-0 (56-42, 46-35).
Semifinal line-up: Vidya Pillai vs.Neena Praveen; Suniti Damani vs. Arantxa Sanchis.