Keerthana Pandian enters Asian snooker semifinal in Doha

India’s Keerthana Pandian advanced to the women’s semifinals of the Asian Snooker Championships in Doha with a 3-1 win over Chu Pui Ying

Hyderabad: 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 on Thursday.

The 3-1 verdict helped Keerthana set up a semifinal showdown against former champion and compatriot Anupama Ramachandran, the reigning IBSF World champion.

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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 against Hong Kong’s Ho Yee Ki.

After a slow start, Keerthana found her rhythm as the match wore on, pushing her rival onto the backfoot with clever play. She scored when she got her chances and kept her opponent under control when she lost position.

After levelling frame scores in the best-of-five 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 an early flourish, including a break of 62 in the second frame, the Chennai cueist struggled with consistency through the tournament. After losing the fourth frame, she regrouped in time to clinch the deciding frame 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.