Anuja rallies to lift title

By M.C. Raman

CHENNAI, FEB. 10. Two youngsters lifted their game to dizzy heights in the Khel.com National billiards championships here on Saturday. Tamil Nadu's Jai Ganesh, a second year English literature student of PSG Arts, Coimbatore, knocked out hot favourite and India's No. 2 Manan Chandra of Delhi 579-460 to barge into the summit league of the Junior tournament before 18- year-old Mumbai college girl Anuja Thakur won her maiden women's billiards title, beating Pooja Galundia of Rajasthan 70-65, 66- 86, 121-55, 92-95, 137-45 at Wild West, Spencer Plaza.

What she missed in 1997 at Indore on her debut, losing to Farah Khan in the final, Anuja achieved here in style. This she did despite the dramatic rally of Pooja, who, racing against the time, grabbed the fourth frame in an exciting finish to take her to the tie-breaking fifth frame. Under pressure, Anuja did not notice the remaining two minutes that helped Pooja to overtake her.

From the beginning Anuja was quite confident, rallying from 17-34 to clinch the first frame, though the highest break was only 13. But in the second left-hander Pooja, an MBA holder, did a similar rally coming from behind (14-32) to take it with a 22 break. Pooja was comfortable in potting. But Anuja was cannoning and potting well. That was evindent in the third frame in which the Maharashtra girl, with a good break of 31, swamped her rival with a 60-point difference.

Anuja's performance was improving steadily. She had a break of 13 in the first, followed by 17, 31, 28 and 34 in the final frame. But Pooja's was deteriorating - 12, 22, 16, 19 and 10 in the final frame.

Jai Ganesh, State No. 1 in junior and No. 2 in senior, did not do well in the first two visits. But the break of 87 gave him tremendous confidence. Showing excellent consistency and with breaks of 52, 36, 30, 32 and 33 the Coimbatore boy, practising at the Railway campus, took a 200 point lead as Manan was struggling along. It was only in his 29th visit he recorded a super break of 96 in just six or seven minutes. He was so fluent and so graceful that it would have been a big threat to Jai had he continued on that break further.

The results: Women: Anuja Thakur bt Pooja Galundia 70-65, 66-86, 121-55, 92-95, 137-45.

Junior billiards (quarter-finals): Jai Ganesh (TN) beat Manan Chandra (Del) 579-460, Jaswinder Singh (Raj) beat Rishab Thakur (maha) 400-366, Vishal Madan (maha) beat Harit D. Parik (Guj) 535-493, Pankaj Advani (Kar) beat Pamin K. Shah (Guj) 767-349.

Senior snooker (qualifying round): Yathendraraj (TN) beat Kaushik (Kar) 59-23, 53-22, 70-33, Arvind Savu (Kar) beat Brijesh Damania (Ben) 35-50, 46-42, 64-302-70, 61-23, Mark Denise (TN) beat Nitesh Vijay (AP) 29-54, 59-35, 45-32, 62-52, Prem Prakash (TN) beat Vishal Bajaj (AP) 80- 39, 65-38, 57-29, Sunil Sharma (Kar) beat A.K. Ahmed (TN) 61-25, 71-52, 73-37, S.A. faheem (TN) beat Siddharth Parikh (Maha) 64- 24, 18-57, 84-31, 54-42, Anthim Singhi (Rlys) beat Srinivasa Rao (AP) 49-24, 51-35, 79-30, Someswara Rao (AP) beat Imran ganj (TN) 66-8, 58-33, 44-53, 72- 20, Ankur Kaitan (Guj) beat D. Madhu (TN) 37-70, 66-57, 68-37, 61-29, S. Pandia (Maha) beat Md. hanif (TN) 69-25, 83-56, 55-41.

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