Arantxa Sanchis regained the senior National women’s billiards title defeating her Maharashtra state-mate Meenal Thakur 75-74, 75-45, 27-75, 77-19 in the final here on Thursday.
When Arantxa last won the title in 2012 it was incidentally Meenal she had beaten in the final.
Arantxa showed nerves of steel in the opening frame to recover from 61-74.
“After I took 2-0 lead I relaxed a bit allowing Meenal to win the third,” she said. In the fourth frame, Arantxa gave Meenal no chance.
“I want to win a double as I will be competing in the snooker National as well,” said Arantxa.
West Bengal’s Doyel Dey won the junior National snooker title defeating Ishika Shah of Madhya Pradesh 25-27, 28-09, 29-20 in the final.
PSPB’s Sourav Kothari was the biggest casualty in the group league stage of the 82nd senior National men’s snooker championship when he failed to qualify from his group.
He also made an early exit from the billiards event losing in the pre-quarterfinals.
Rafath Habib of Railways lost to junior National snooker champion Avinash Kumar in the round of 32 by 3-4 frames, but the 20-year-old did not survive against second seed Kamal Chawla of Railways, getting swamped 4-0 in the pre-quarterfinals.
The results: Women: Billiards final: Arantxa Sanchis (Mah) bt Meenal Thakur (Mah) 75-74, 75-45, 27-75, 77-19.
Junior girls: Snooker final: Doyel Dey (WB) bt Ishika Shah (MP) 25-27, 28-09, 29-20.
Men: Snooker pre-quarterfinals: Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt Sundeep Gulati (Del) 72 (71)-08, 93 (62)-24, 91 (52)-01, 80 (72)-00; Faisal Khan (Rly) bt Alok Kumar (PSPB) 28-89, 51-53, 77-45, 86 (43)-25, 70-20, 54-36; Dharminder Lilly (Pun) bt Dhvaj Haria (PSPB) (69-23, 61-45, 65-45, 56-50); Shahbaaz Adil Khan (PSPB) bt Himanshu Jain (Tel) 31-61, 62-30, 76-14, 77-50, 80-39; Manan Chandra (PSPB) bt Shivam Arora (Bih) 51-53, 70-54, 107 (58)-24, 65-14, 09-121 (121), 59-36; Devendra Joshi (PSPB) bt Monu Chaudhary (Del) 28-69 (56), 61-46, 59-41, 62-26, 07-74, 61-59; Varun Madan (Del) bt Brijesh Damani (PSPB) 00-101, 62-60, 04-63, 37-72, 74-29, 100-13, 60-53; Kamal Chawla (Rly) bt Avinash Kumar (Del) 63-44, 113 (103)-00, 102 (46)-16, 75 (56)-08.
