Keerthana storms into semis, meets Amee next; Anupama has it easy

Karnataka’s Keerthana Pandian powered into the semifinals with a lopsided victory over statemate R Umadevi in the women’s National snooker championship in Bahadurgarh, Haryana, on Saturday evening.

The 23-year-old, a two-time National 6-red snooker champion, outclassed her rival 3-0 in the best-of-five frame final to set up a semifinal meeting with the formidable Amee Kamani.

Keerthana was dominant from the get-go, hardly giving Umadevi a look-in. Although the Kolar cueist didn’t come up with the big breaks, she made capital of the chances she got. The youngster let her opponent win a mere 27 points in the entire match.

At the adjacent table, Amee was even more authoritative in her 3-0 demolition of Snenthra Babu. The former champion came up with a break of 47 in the final frame.

Defending champion Anupama Ramachandran outclassed fellow Tamil Nadu cueist L Shruthi 3-0. In the last-four stage, Anupama takes on Ishika Shah, who overcame Aanya Patel 3-1.

Results (Quarterfinals): Keerthana Pandian (Kar) bt R Umadevi (Kar) 3-0 (63-8, 74-16, 67-3); Amee Kamani (MP) bt Snenthra Babu (TN) 3-0 (65-2, 70-5, 84 (47) -15); Anupama Ramachandran (TN) bt L Shruthi (TN) 3-0 (74 (47) -37, 65-30, 71-7); Ishika Shah (MP) bt Aanya Patel (Guj) 3-1 (32-42, 63-37, 81-60).