Vidya Pillai wins ladies National Snooker title

CHENNAI: Five-time national champion 33-year-old Vidya Pillai Tilakraj of Tamil Nadu added one more snooker title to her kitty on Monday when she trounced Arantxa Sanchis 3-1 (53-34, 43-53, 92-15, 54-15) in the final in the National billiards and snooker championship.
Vidya lost only one frame, the second but she had started with a bang notching up a break of 28 in the first frame on the fourth visit to win 54-34.Arantxa rallied in the second frame as Vidya took risks when she potted green, brown, blue and pink before handing over the black to her opponent, going for a difficult shot.
The Chennai lass, who has moved to Bangalore this year after her marriage, did not leave anything to chance in the third frame and ran up breaks of 44 and 18 to take it comfortably. She played cautiously in the fourth frame and recorded breaks of 16 (7th), 16 (8th) to seal the match and her sixth title.
Vidya Pillai had beaten pool specialist Neena Praveen (TN) 3-1 (30-57,60-49, 57-16, 60-17) and Arantxa Sanchis blanked Suniti Damani (WB) 3-0 (42-14,70-2,72-42) in the semifinals. In the third-place playoff, Neena Praveen (TN) bt Suniti Damani (WB) 2-0 (53-31,26-17).
Earlier, having lost out in the quarterfinals narrowly, former world billiards champion Chitra Magimairaj of Karnataka played with vengeance in the 5-8 placings ladies snooker match against Keerat Bhandal of Delhi. Chitra's start was amazing as she recorded a break of 74 on the first visit and went on to score 109 in the frame, the highest so far in this edition of the championship.
Placings: 5th-Chitra Magimairaj (Kar), 6th- Umadevi Nagaraj (Kar), 7th- Keerat Bhandaal (Del), 8th-Meenal Thakur (Mah), Ishpreet Singh (Punjab) In the junior boys snooker, ML Lakshmanan, Rohan Jambusariya (both Karnataka), Mark Menezes (UP), Amoldeep Singh (Delhi) and Ishpreet Singh made it to the main draw from a qualifying field of 83 players.
Qualifying results: ML Lakshman (Kar) bt Manav Thatter (Guj) 3-0 (56-25,74-19,82-17), bt Debayanlaha (WB) 3-0 (54-0, 56-45,54-5), bt Ashwin Vanpal (Mah) 3-0 (54-29,56-29,50-38), bt E Sunder Raj (TN) 3-2 (9-54,37-70.59-12,86-29,76-35) Mark Menezes(UP): 1st round bye, bt Gaurav Rao (Kar) 3-2 (46-41,53-45,45-55,29-49,68-22), bt Pratik Jain (MP) 3-2 (33-56,22-62,74-40,54-20, 65-10), bt Abishak Bora (Mah) 3-2 (8-60, 64-12,77-45,45-76,59-22), bt Vishal Vaya (Mah) 3-2 (69-77,46-44,62-56,38-56,74-30) Ishpreet Singh 1st round bye, wlkover from Harsh Vardhan Goenka (WB), bt Poras Shah (Mah) 3-1 (68-86, 56-51, 60-29,56-53), bt Supreet Y.G (Kar) 3-2 (50-26, 37-36, 33-49, 46-57, 82-49), bt Vybhav Damija (Pun) 3-1 (62-26, 16-56, 80-67, 68-21) Rohan Jambusaria (mah) bt Akash S.Shah(Guj),3-1 (51-43,55-31,44-46,76-40), bt Abhey Gangothra (Kar) 3-0 (65-23,59-28,48-31), bt Jaiveer Dhingra (Mah) 3-1 (45-20,62-40,51-58,59-47), bt Warish Tater (Kar), 3-1 (64-27, 39-47, 39-47, 58-52, 46-12) Anmoldeep Singh (Del) bt Kushal VR (Kar) 3-2 (18-49,35-49,75-11,64-13, 56-22), bt Sagar borele (MP) 3-0 (76-23,53-37,49-37), walkover from Umesh Brave (Mah), bt Nitesh Madan (Del) 3-2 (20-71,52-55,71-20, 61-42,63-56)