JOIN USManan Chandra and Vidya Pillai scored commanding victories to emerge champions in the National snooker championship for men and women respectively here on Saturday.
While Chandra brushed aside his PSPB colleague Brijesh Damani 6-2 in the men’s title clash, Vidya Pillai blanked fellow Karnataka cueist Neena Praveen 4-0 at the Jiwaji University hall.
Chandra, who last won the snooker crown in 2004 but has since struggled to live up to to his immense potential, took off from where he had left off in his 5-0 semifinal drubbing of veteran Alok Kumar.
Almost doing nothing wrong, Chandra dished out a vintage display, galloping to 4-0 lead in quick time. Although, Damani tried to avoid the inevitable by pocketing the fifth and seventh frame, he couldn’t stop Chandra from running away with a deserved win.
Vidya, who skipped last year’s national after becoming a mother, oozed class as she crushed a clueless Neena for her seventh national snooker crown and signalling her comeback.
Results: Men: Snooker, final: Manan Chandra (PSPB) bt Brijesh Damani (PSPB) 6-2 (52-13, 68-30, 65-45, 50-38, 11-88, 54-7, 8-74, 62-22).
Third-place play-off: Alok Kumar (PSPB) bt Vijay Nichani (TN) 3-1 (60-43, 64-56, 50-59, 56-25).
Ladies: Snooker, final: Vidya Pillai (Kar) bt Neena Praveen (Kar) 4-0 (68-3, 85-6, 64-50, 33-30).
Third-place play-off: Keerath Bhandaal (Del) bt Heena Khandelwal (Mah) 2-0 (48-32, 38-15).