Lucknow: Reigning Indian snooker national champion, Vidya Pillai of Karnataka, set up a final clash with her former state mate from TamilNadu, Neena Praveen in the women's category of the National Six Red Snooker Championship being played here at the Indoor TT complex, Lucknow on Tuesday.
The semifinal contest between Vidya and Amee Kamani of Madhya Pradesh was very evenly matched till the first four frames before Vidya took the reins of the tie firmly in her hands, using her experience to advantage. Amee began rather well by taking the first frame through a beautiful slice pot of the blue into the top pocket followed by the pink to forge ahead. Nonetheless, coming into her own in the second Vidya restored parity when she potted the spotted green, brown and blue balls on the colours stage to make it 1-1.
Amee, taking advantage of a couple of lapses, pocketed the third frame to go ahead by 2-1 once again, but that was as far as she could go. Vidya deepening her concentration swamped the fourth, fifth and the sixth frames in quick succession to romp home a deserving four frames to two victor by 27-39,42-20,13-39,37-17,39-32 and 62-10 points sailing into the final of the ladies event.
On the other table,it was a contest between a world billiards champion, R Uma Devi of Karnataka and the last years 6 red winner Neena Praveen of Tamil Nadu. Here also it was a match between youthful exuberance and the experience of a seasoned campaigner.
Uma took the first frame only to see Neena strike back in the second by despatching the needed black ball into the bottom pocket.
Neena continued to pile up the pressure in the third potting a half visible pink ball into the bottom pocket to lead by 2-1 frames. Uma, not to be denied, rallied well for the fourth frame to make it 2-2.
However, with Uma not able to keep her form in the next two frames, it was easy for Neena to wrap up the match by taking the fifth and sixth frames for the win by 12-42,23-21,33-22,13-59,39-20 and 43-39 points for the entry into the final.
In the semi finals of the men's category, it was the turn of talented youth to take the centre stage. Six red specialist, Varun Madan of Delhi was in an explosive mmod as he virtually outplayed the Bengal Tiger, Sourav Kothari in six straight frames of the best of eleven encounter while in the other semii final, Rahul Sachdeva of Maharashtra showed his prowess in potting as he snuffed out the challenge of Ketan Chawla of Madhya Pradesh in seven frames beeating him by 6-1 in clinical fashion.
Sourav, who till this match looked very focussed was in for a huge surprise as Varub potting from anywhere and everywhere was just unstoppablle on this day. Trailing by 02 frames, Sourav tried valiantly in the third but Varun pocketing the vital black ball was soon on a 3-0 lead. Taking the fourth with a brace, he faced some opposition in the fifth, but the fight by Sourav was shortlived as Varun, on a rampage took even this frame and followed it with the sixth to comlete the rout with a degree of authority.
Rahul, a student of National snooker coach, Sanjayy Sawant proved that he is learning his lessons well even as he exhibited clean potting aand cue-ball positioning to subdue Ketan. Rahul, well on top by now, was at his best in tthe seventh frame with a clearance of 53 points to set up the "battle royalle" with Varun Madan on Wednesday afternoon.
Quarter Finals
Men Result
Varun Madan beat J. Varun Kumar :: 5-1 (50-17, 41-17, 34-23, 41-18, 10-40, 44-00)
Sourav Kothari beat Brijesh Damani :: 5-4 (15-40, 29-06, 40-33, 67-08, 12-46, 10-40, 30-39, 34-08, 45-08)
Rahul Sachdev beat Kamal Chawla :: 5-3 (10-44, 11-29, 26-37, 39-32, 27-24, 71-00, 55-16, 41-16)
Ketan Chawla beat Aneesh Saini :: 5-4 (21-42, 19-51, 37-09, 43-35, 15-43, 43-00, 50-09, 25-56, 47-20)
Women Result
Neena Praveen beat Judy Walia :: 3-1 (15-38, 47-08, 50-09, 29-19)
R. Umadevi beat Keerath Bhandaal :: 3-1 (34-06, 26-19, 05-41, 46-21)
Vidya Pillai beat Meenal Thakur :: 3-1 (42-33, 39-08, 09-30, 40-04)
Amee Kamani beat Chitra M. :: 3-1 (33-06, 00-68, 44-37, 46-18)
