Date:17/06/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/06/17/stories/2005061707292000.htm

Sport - Billiards & Snooker

Close contests order of the day

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: For the first time in the MCC invitation women's snooker tournament the ranked players found the going tough, but managed to hang on to win their quarterfinal contests at the MCC premises here on Thursday.

Of the four quarterfinals three needed deciders and in one Chitra Magimairaj of Karnataka scored a comfortable 55-51, 67-35, 60-23 victory over Ashwini Puranik of Maharashtra and moved into the semifinals.

However top seed Vidya Pillai, the current National champion, Pooja Galundia of Rajasthan and Neeta Sanghvi of Maharashtra won by three frames to two, fighting till the end. In the match against Vidya of Tamil Nadu Sangeetha Hemchand of Mahrashtra was in the game till there were four balls on the table in the decider. She needed 21 points from brown, blue, pink and black. It was a tense finish and Vidya was under tremendous pressure as Sangeetha made it 2-all, bouncing back every time. But Vidya just about managed to pot the pink to take the tie.

This morning Sangeetha, Heena and Neena tied for two slots in Group B and in the play-off both Sangeetha and Heena made it to the knock-out.

Neeta Sanghvi was down by two frames to one against the better-ranked Umadevi of Karnataka. It was not a good start for her. Still she made it 2-all with tenacity and took control in the decider. It was a brilliant fight back.

So was Pooja Galundia's. It was the most exciting finish as both she and Heena Khandelwal of Maharashtra surged to the black finish. It was such a close match and Pooja potted the black to strom into the semifinals.

Pooja too made a shaky start but surged to a two-one lead. But because of their slow game the organisers had to postpone the semifinals to tomorrow morning.

The semifinal line up is: Neeta Sanghvi vs Chitra Magimairaj and Poojas v Vidya Pillai.

The results (quarterfinals): Neeta Sanghvi bt Uma Devi 40-48, 59-34, 21-61, 50-17, 47-5; Vidya Pillai bt Sangeetha Hemchand 53-12, 45-53, 57-17, 34-67, 57-36; Chitra Magimairaj bt Ashwini Puranik 55-51, 67-35, 60-23; Pooja Galundia bt Heena Khandelwal 20-43, 53-39, 49-15, 46-62, 57-44.