Umadevi regains National ladies billiards title

Commencing her attack with a break of 30 in the best of five 75-up final against Menal, veteran Umadevi never looked back before winning the title with sizeable lead in all the three frames.

On the other hand, 32-year-old Meenal, who rose in stature having won both billiards and snooker titles in the last two previous nationals, was under pressure and started missing easy pots too against Umadevi’s strong efforts.

Posting a break of 16 and 25, Umadevi clinched the first two frames and came up with a superb 32 in the third to seal her victory.  Meenal could post a 22 as her best in the final match.

Earlier in the semi-finals, Meenal put paid to the aspirations of Chitra Magimairaj (Karnataka) 22-75 (38), 75-69 (34), 75(57)-26, 66-76, 75-68, while Umadevi facing a less experienced sub-junior star Keerath Bhandaal (Delhi) had little difficulty to progress to the final with a 76-67, 76(42)-38, 75-23 win.

However, Keerath had the consolation of winning the third placed match against Chitra at 07-52, 50-21, 51-47.

Earlier results:
Pre-Quarter-finals: Meenal Thakur (Mah) bt Renu Bharkatia (MP) 2-1; Neena Praveen (TN) bt Varsha Sanjeev (Kar) 2-1, Chitra Magimairaj (Kar) bt Gayathri Suri (TN) 2-0, I Lahari (AP) bt Sunithi Damani (WB) 2-1, Vidya Pillai (TN) bt Indira Gowda (Kar) 2-0, Keerat Bandaal (Del) bt Lakshmi Suryanarayan (Kar) 2-0, Arantxa Sanchis (Mah) bt Saniya Arif (Chd) 2-0, Umadevi Nagaraj (Kar) bt Asha (TN) 2-1.
Quarter-finals: Meenal Thakur bt Neena Praveen 2-1, Chirta Magimairaj bt I Lahari (AP) 2-0; Keerath Bhandaal bt Vidya Pillai (TN) 2-0; Umadevi Nagaraj bt Arantxa Sanchis 2-1.