India’s Keerthana Pandian stormed into the women’s semifinals with a comfortable victory over Hong Kong’s Chu Pui Ying in the Asian Snooker Championships in Doha, Qatar, on Thursday.
The 3-1 verdict helped Keerthana set up a mouthwatering semifinal showdown against former champion and compatriot Anupama Ramachandran, the reigning IBSF World champion.
Anupama took a tougher route to the last-four stage, overcoming Hong Kong’s Yee Ting Cheung 3-2. Amee Kamani, the third Indian to make the knockouts, frittered away the advantage to go down 2-3, after being 2-0 up, to Hong Kong’s Ho Yee Ki.
After getting off to a slow start, Keerthana found her bearings as the match wore on to push her rival onto the backfoot with her clever play. She scored when she got her chances and then kept her on a tight leash when she lost position.
After levelling frames scores in the best-of-five frame contest, Keerthana came up with a frame-clinching break of 36 for a 2-1 lead. In the fourth, the Indian called the shots from the beginning to seal the frame and match 51-24. Keerthana, who lost to Anupama in the semis two years ago, will look to avenge that defeat when they meet later in the evening.
Anupama had to dig deep to overcome Cheung. Despite the early flourish, including a break of 62 in the second frame, the Chennai cueist has been struggling with her consistency right through the tournament. After losing the fourth frame, she managed to regroup in time to clinch the deciding frame rather comfortably.
In the men’s Under-21 section, India’s Aarav Sancheti went down 1-4 to Malaysia’s Muhammad Wafi in the pre-quarterfinals.
Results (Indians unless mentioned): Women (Quarterfinals): Keerthana Pandian beat Chu Pui Ying (HK) 3-1 (18-57, 39-29, 52 (36) -41, 51-24); Anupama Ramachandran beat Yee Ting Cheung (HK) 3-2 (32-60, 63 (62) -25, 62-26, 31-40, 52-18); Ho Yee Ki (HK) beat Amee Kamani 3-2 (23-51, 21-53, 44 (37) -1, 57 (30) -10, 52-36); Narantuya Bayarsaikhan (Mgl) beat Wan Ka Kai (HK) 3-0 (39-22, 60-46, 58 (38) -0).
Under-21: Pre-quarters: Muhammad Wafi (Mas) beat Aarav Sancheti 4-1 (76-54, 75-64, 18-72, 72-1, 69-59).
League: Group F: Zhou Jinhao (Chn) beat Jabez Naveen Kumar 3-0 (70-31, 77-28, 91 (74) -0).
Group H: Rahul Williams beat Abdullah Al Qabbani (KSA) 3-2 (67-29, 39-72, 73-30, 0-75, 47-33).
