Amee Kamani regains National 6-Red snooker women’s crown

Chennai, Dec 10: Multiple-time champion Amee Kamani of Madhya Pradesh won the National 6-Red snooker women’s crown in style on Sunday, brushing aside Anupama Ramachandran of Tamil Nadu 4-1 in the final at the ongoing National Billiards and Snooker Championships here.
“Chennai has been lucky for me and to win the title here again is special,” said Amee, who defeated the experienced Chitra Magimairaj of Karnataka in the semifinals.
Anupama beat defending champion Vidya Pillai of Karnataka in the other semifinal match, exacting revenge for her loss in the World 6-Red snooker in Doha last month, but failed to carry forward the momentum.
Amee went two frames up before the local favourite took the third 42-11. However, Amee won the next two frames 43-0 and 48-26 to close out the match.
“I’m looking forward to the two competitions ahead,” Amee said, referring to the 15-Red snooker and billiards in the ongoing 90th National Championships at the Nehru Indoor Stadium.
In 2017, Amee had won the National billiards, snooker and 6-Red snooker titles in the same calendar year.
On Saturday, Malkeet Singh had emerged as the new National 6-Red snooker men’s champion, beating his RSPB colleague E Pandurangaiah in the final.
Singh defeated Pandurangaiah 7-5 in a keenly-contested best-of-13 frames summit clash on Saturday.
Earlier, he had come up with a morale-boosting come-from-behind 6-5 triumph over favourite and 26-time IBSF world champion Pankaj Advani (PSPB) in the semifinal stage.
Pandurangaiah came into the title round high on confidence after getting past a fancied Aditya Mehta (PSPB) 6-4 in the other semifinal.
Regardless, it was former champion Advani’s loss, after having all but sealed the match at 5-3, which left the Indian cue sports community astounded.
Malkeet prevailed in the final three frames 59-0, 43-1, 67-13 in a sensational fashion against Advani to register the greatest upset in the event.
“Malkeet held his nerve and got the better of me towards the end,” said Advani, last edition’s runner-up, who later also lost the third-place playoff to Mehta. (PTI)