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Billiards & Snooker
Varsha cruises into quarterfinals
By Kirti Patil
Varsha Mazumdar of Maharashtra on way to winning her pre-quarterfinal match against Seema Desai of Bengal in the National women's snooker championship in Ahmedabad on Friday. - Photo: Paras Shah
AHMEDABAD, JAN. 11. Defending champion Anuja Thakur and last year's runner-up, Varsha Mazmudar, cruised into the quarterfinals of the 10th National women's snooker championship at the Ellisbridge Gymkhana here on Friday.
Maharashtra girl Anuja needed less than an hour to book her quarterfinal ticket. Anuja outclassed Renu Bharkatiya of Madhya Pradesh 58-19, 52-24, to set up an interesting quarterfinal meeting with Karnataka's Uma Devi R. The two had met at the same stage in the billiards championship last week with Uma winning the duel. Uma went on to claim the title also.
Uma defeated the 73-year-old Kamala C. Babu of Tamil Nadu in a lop-sided pre-quarterfinal contest, at 73-13, 71-18.
Varsha scored an impressive 64-21, 76-22 win over Seema Desai of Bengal, in the bottom half of the draw. Varsha, who has played table tennis at the national level and now works as a commentator with a satellite sports channel, won her match in just about an hour.
While the other seeded players progressed expectedly, Anuja's sister Meenal caused a minor upset by defeating last year's semifinalist, Jagruti Patel of Maharashtra. Jagruti, who lost her final league match against Ashwini Puranik of Madhya Pradesh, could not cope with the pressure.
Rehani crashes out
Delhi's Mukesh Rehani, who participated in a few international tournaments in the recent past thanks to the Billiards and Snooker Federation of India (BSFI), played like a novice and crashed out of the men's snooker qualifying tournament at the Gujarat Sports Club.
In a third-round match with Railways' Shyam Jagtiani, Rehani lost three straight frames before he just about managed to win the fourth 67-53. Rehani, who represented India in the Tokyo World pool championship in November last, needed to put an extra effort to stretch Jagtiani. But, the Railways cueist gave no such openings. Jagtiani won the fifth frame 107-12 and made it to the final round of the qualifying event.
National billiards champion Devendra Joshi, promising Delhi cueist Siddharth Anand and Railways' Siddharth Parikh were the others who moved into the final round, from the top half of the draw.
The results:
Women: Pre-quarterfinals: Chitra M. (Kar) bt Seema G. (TN) 52-27, 53-46; Anuja Thakur (Mah) bt Renu Bharkatiya (MP) 58-19, 52-24; Meenal Thakur (Mah) bt Jagruti Patel (Mah) 71-67, 35-63, 64-29; Varsha Mazmudar (Mah) bt Seema Desai (Ben) 64-21, 76-22; Uma Devi R. (Kar) bt Kamala C. Babu (TN) 73-13, 71-18.
Preliminary league: Group A: Anuja Thakur (Mah) w/o Amrita Mohapatra (Ori). Group C: Meenal Thakur (Mah) w/o Pooja Galundia (Raj). Group D: Ashwini Puranik (MP) bt Jagruti Patel (Mah) 55-23, 20- 61, 64-18. Group E: V. Chitra M. (Kar) w/o Neelam Mittal (MP); Seema Desai (Ben) w/o Neelam Mittal (MP). Group F: Heena Khandelwal (Mah) bt Sharda Deshmukh (MP) 46-38, 58-68, 61-41.
Group G: Sonal Mammonwala (Mah) bt Mehjabeen Raza (AP) 67-8, 48-23; Sri Devi T.V. (Kar) bt Kamala C. Babu (TN) 57-49, 49-18. Group H: Uma Devi R. (Kar) bt Neeta Sanghvi (Mah) 70-36, 22-72, 45-37.
Men (qualifying): Third round: Devendra Joshi (Mah) bt Varun Taneja (Rly) 74-0, 68-37, 58-15, 5-62, 56- 28; Siddharth Anand (Del) bt Dhruv Patel (Guj) 71-35, 62-25, 80- 16, 57-67, 39-27; Siddharth Parikh (Rly) bt Ritesh Shah (Mah) 76- 36, 54-49, 0-107, 65-24, 65-35; Shyam Jagtiani (Rly) bt Mukesh Rehani (Del) 71-37, 70-25, 53-12, 53-67, 103-12.
Second round: Sanjay Sawant (Mah) bt Krishna Kumar (UP) 58-32, 50-42, 40-50, 77-27; Antim Singhi (Rly) bt Ramesh Tiwari (Ben) 60-17, 91-21, 78-13; Shakil Ahmed (Mah) bt Chintin Zaveri (Mah) 63-74, 98-36, 84-11, 60-9; Amit Khansaheb (Mah) bt Farooq Ibrahim (AP) 56-19, 39-78, 65-18, 68-15; J.S. Daver (Mah) bt Abhishek Rathod (Guj) 76-16, 51-3, 65-12; Nalin Patel (Mah) bt Rahul Agarwal (Guj) 67-46, 71-9, 71-0; Parthiv Zaveri (Guj) bt Bhaskar (TN) 53-32, 51-9, 62-53; Sarang Shroff (Mah) bt Ankur Ketan (Guj) 66-36, 65-26, 52-47.
First round: Abhishek Rathod (Guj) w/o K. Venkatesan (Rly); Nalin Patel (Mah) bt Nadeem Ahmed (TN) 73- 60, 9-67, 87-20, 58-6; Parthiv Zaveri (Guj) bt Paras Rangwala (Guj) 57-38, 60-36, 59-31; Ankur Ketan (Guj) bt Paresh Choksi 41- 45, 37-43, 56-10, 61-26, 62-28.
Thursday's results:
Men (qualifying tournament): Second round: Varun Taneja (Rly) bt Nikhil Oatam (Mah) 73-32, 68-34, 77- 67; Dhruv Patel (Guj) bt Satyam Parikh (Guj) 44-55, 42-54, 53-23, 88-77, 65-39; Ritesh Shah (Mah) bt Abhijit Munshaw (Guj) 58-30, 46-71, 69-55, 62-21; Siddharth Parikh (Rly) bt Arun Agarwal (Mah) 55-32, 15-63, 75-18, 64-40; Mukesh Rehani (Del) bt Aditya Mehta (Mah) 54-45, 56-47, 56-38; Shyam K. Jagtiani (Rly) bt Hemendra Jadeja (Guj) 56-22, 59-21 (Jadeja was penalised one frame for reporting late).
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