Meenal shocks Judith

By Avinash Nair

BANGALORE, FEB. 2. Meenal Bhairagi walked into the KSBA hall without any aspirations. Three hours later, the stocky Mumbai lady trooped off with her head held high. And deservingly so as she had accounted for the second seed and hot favourite Judith Walia in the quarterfinals of the 8th National Women's snooker championship here on Wednesday.

It was Meenal's day all over. Pitted against her much fancied sister Anuja Thakur in the pre-quarters in the morning, Meenal was precision pesonified. And to the credit of the 20-year old B.Com graduate, she had it in her to carry on the good work against her fancied opponent Judith Walia too.

In the other quarterfinals, Farah Khan survived some anxious moments before getting past R. Umadevi, also from Karnataka at 56-62, 50-25, 28-55, 58-8, 49-36 while Heena Khandelwal in an awesome display demolished the challenge from Varsha Mazumdar, the third seed from Maharashtra in straight frames at 40-36, 48- 40, 59-50.

Meena runs into Heena in the semifinals while Farah meets former champion Pooja Galundia.

Farah's bubbliness was at a point of going bust, when in the third frame she messed up a couple of easy `pots' to virtually gift the frame away.

However, in the fourth and fifth frames, Farah put her best foot forward to brush aside the earlier hiccups and pocket the frame and match in style, rounding off the fifth with an impeccable long shot.

Meenal however it was who stole the limelight on this day. Anuja Thakur by all yarstick was better equipped to make it to the quarter going by her form in the earlier league matches. But Meenal was not to go by form books. Displaying a composed posture throughout, the elder sister proved a point or two to her younger sibling in precision play.

But then Meenal was not through for the day. Taking on an opponent - Judith Walia, was in itself ominous. But shrugging aside the early blues with nonchallance as Judith time and again tended to drift into mediocrity.

Meenal on her part played percentage snooker. A few delectable safety shots aside, Meenal potted with surety which litterally took the sting out oif her famed rival. True, Meenal did miss a few edge of the pocket visits, but then in the long run it was her steadiness that won her the day. Judith came out with some `touch play' at the crucial junctures but Meenal on this day seemed to have an answer for everything.

Having assured herself of a comfortable lead in the decider, Meenal resorted to play it safe and almost blundered with her brown. But then with Judith too unable to capitalise on the `sitter', Meenal it was who managed the dying moments with assurance. A `pink' spelled Judith's doom who was gracious enough to shake her conqueror's hand in acceptance of defeat.

Results: (Pre- quarterfinals): Varsha Mazumdar (Mah) bt Ritu Srivastava (mp) 54-18, 58-30; Judih Walia (Kar) bt Sangeeta Hemchand (Mah) 58-36, 41-22; Heena Khandelwal (Mah) bt Kamaladevi Chandra Babu (TN) 56-32, 62-47; Meenal Bhairagi (Mah) bt Anuja Thakur (Mah) 68-14, 44-33; Pooja Galundia (Raj) bt Jagruti Patel (Mah) 62-42, 69-46; Farah Khan (Kar) bt Ashwini Puranik (MP) 48- 39, 63-32; Neeta Sanghvi (Mah) bt Chitra (Kar) 79-29, 52-21; R. Umadevi (Kar) bt Usha Khandelwal (Mah) 9-38, 56-21.

Quarterfinals: Heena Khandelwal (Mah) bt Varsha Mazumdar (Mah) 40-36, 48-40, 59-50; Meenal Bhairagi (Mah) bt Judith Walia (Kar) 50-64, 49-38, 54-46, 46-55, 52- 29; Farah Khan (Kar) bt R. Umadevi (Kar) 56-62, 50-25, 28-55, 58-8, 49-36; Pooja Galundia (Raj) bt Neeta Sanghvi (Mah) 61-56, 61-23, 37-38, 60-32.

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