Malkeet Singh emerged as the new National 6-Red snooker men’s champion after beating his RSPB colleague E. Pandurangaiah 7-5 in a closely fought best-of-13 frames final in the 90th National Billiards & Snooker Championships held at the Nehru Indoor Stadium on Saturday.
Malkeet earlier had a morale-boosting come-from-behind 6-5 victory over favourite and 26-time IBSF world champion Pankaj Advani (PSPB) in the last-four stage.
Pandurangaiah came into the title round high on confidence after putting it past the fancied Aditya Mehta (PSPB) 6-4 in the other semifinal. But it was former champion Advani’s upset, after having all but sealed the match at 5-3, that left the Indian cue sports community stunned. Malkeet won the final three frames 59-0, 43-1, 67-13 in spectacular fashion against Advani.
On Sunday, Amee Kamani of Madhya Pradesh regained the National 6-Red snooker women’s crown in style, brushing aside the challenge of Anupama Ramachandran of Tamil Nadu 4-1 in the final.
Amee went two frames up before the local favourite took the third 42-11 as the contest appeared to be hotting up. However, Amee won the next two frames 43-0 and 48-26 to close out the match.
The results: Men: Final: Malkeet Singh (RSPB) bt E. Pandurangaiah (RSPB) 7-5 (0-58, 51-16, 43-1, 7-57, 50-23, 69-0, 0-48, 0-60, 49-0, 43-6, 22-42, 33-16). Semifinals: Malkeet bt Pankaj Advani (PSPB) 6-5 (46-13, 24-36, 20-40, 39-28, 10-45, 32-42, 41-28, 6-47, 59-0, 43-1, 67-13); Pandurangaiah bt Aditya Mehta (PSPB) 6-4 (23-39, 44-22, 10-41, 44-28, 21-30, 36-14, 42-24, 17-46, 54-5, 40-23).
Women: Final: Amee Kamani (MP) bt Anupama Ramachandran (TN) 4-1 (40-20, 47-10, 11-42, 43-0, 48-26).
Semifinals: Amee bt M. Chitra (Kar) 4-2 (28-31, 29-21, 45-18, 13-34, 56-0, 49-0); Anupama bt Vidya Pillai (Kar) 4-2 (1-51, 47-8, 41-0, 25-56, 37-9, 34-0).
Quarterfinals: Amee bt Neena Praveen (TN) 4-0; Chitra bt Arantxa Sanchis (Mah) 4-2, Vidya bt Keerthana Pandian (Kar) 4-3, Anupama bt R. Umadevi (Kar) 4-0.
