Tamil Nadu maiden Shruthi wears snooker crown, denies Gujarat cueist Aanya jr double  

Tamil Nadu’s Shruthi L came up with a gritty show to clinch her maiden junior girls’ snooker title on the final day of the National Championships in Bahadurgarh, Haryana, on Tuesday.

The Coimbatore lass scored a straight-frame win over Aanya Patel in the best-of-five frame contest. Shruthi’s 3-0 verdict also denied a double for the girl from Gujarat.

Even though Shruthi won in straight frames, she had to play out of her skin in the first two frames that could have gone either way. After taking the first 54-40, Shruthi was trailing 42-48 with just the black on the table.

L Shruthi clinched her maiden junior girls’ snooker title on the final day of the National Championships in Bahadurgarh on Tuesday

After a bit of a cat and mouse game, the Tamil Nadiu cueist sank it to the bottom right-hand pocket to go 2-0 up.

Aanya claims junior billiards title

In the third frame, she dominated the Ahmedabad girl, winning it in a canter to lay her hands on the trophy. Aanya, who had clinched the billiards title on Monday night with a hard-fought 105-99 win over Tamil Nadu’s Afeefa Thabassam, the loss of the two close frames seemed to play on her mind and failed to come up with the goods in the third.

Leisha falls to Shruthi in quarterfinals

Leisha Reddy of Telangana was swept away in the quarterfinals. The Telugu girl was outwitted by eventual champion L Shruthi 2-0. Leisha fought valiantly in the first frame as she kept pace with her rival but could not push her game up at the end. She lost the first frame at 39-30 and that seemingly disrupted her rhythm. Leisha went down tamely in the next frame 60-7 to lose the contest.

In the Masters snooker, Rajat Khaneja of Haryana overcame Delhi’s Sundeep Gulati, the Asian heyball champion, 4-2 in the title clash.

Results: Junior girls: Snooker (final): L Shruthi (TN) beat Aanya Patel (Guj) 3-0 (54-40, 49-48, 55-7).

Semifinals: Shruthi beat Jiya Sehgal (Pun) 2-0 (71-2, 57-24); Aanya beat Afeefa Thabassam (TN) 2-0 (59-49, 65-17).

Quarters: Shruthi beat Leisha Reddy (Tel) 2-0 (39-30, 60-7); Aanya beat Padmakshe C (TN) 2-1 (20-33, 75-59, 57-31); Afeefa beat K Dhuvani (TN) 2-0 (28-19, 38-16); Jiya beat Sanvi Shah (MP) 2-1 (15-50, 47-11, 63-33).

Billiards: Final: Aanya Patel (Guj) beat Afeefa Thabassam (TN) 105-99.

Masters (final): Rajat Khaneja (Har) beat Sundeep Gulati (Del) 4-2 (66-27, 40-69, 19-64, 75-8, 103-0, 73-34).

Semifinals: Gulati beat Divya Sharma (Har) 4-0 (67-33, 67-7, 75-26, 66-32); Khaneja beat Faisal Khan (RSPB) 4-3 (65-51, 26-69, 53-54, 60-18, 42-73, 34-75, 53-26).