You have to strain to catch her words but you can’t miss her skills on the green baize. In winning the junior billiards title in the National championship here, Varsha Sanjeev only lived up to the expectations of her coach, Sanjay Samant, and her well-wishers in Bengaluru.
Sawant was realistic when he observed that Varsha had a “long way to go but she has the gift and determination”. She is disciplined and focused.
Varsha knows her limitations too. She is only 19 and has already won nine national titles in the junior category. “My aim here is to win the senior snooker title,” she said with the confidence that saw her win the billiards crown.
A chance snooker show on television left her chasing the sport. “I liked the game and thought I must try it.”
A summer camp experience led her to the Karnataka State Billiards Association Academy and soon she was engrossed in her dream to excel at snooker with invaluable guidance from former players M. G. Jayaram and S. Jairaj.
In the final against Keerat Bhandaal, she trailed by 50, but Varsha recovered to call the shots in the deciding moments. “She missed twice,” noted Varsha as she took stock of the contest. Capitalising on the openings that came her way, Varsha wrapped up the title.
The third place went to Ishika Shah, who overcame Lahari Sinapra 40-29.
Mehta excels
For the second day, Aditya Mehta was in superb touch as he gave Devendra Joshi a 4-0 drubbing. After beginning the contest on a safe note, Joshi looked at some fancy shots and ended up conceding openings to Mehta, who produced a brilliant break of 76 to pocket the frame.
Mehta sank a long red in the second frame and earned a clearance of 46 to win the second frame. In the next frame, he gave nothing away and signed off in style to leave Joshi in a trance.
The results: Men’s snooker: Anand Raghuvanshi bt Jaiveer Dhingra 4 – 2, Shivam Arora bt Monu Choudhury 4 – 2, Alok Kumar bt Abhineet Sharma 4 – 2, Bharat Sisodiya bt Dharminder Lily 4 – 2, I V Rajeev bt Sukumar Burman 4 – 1, Rupesh Shah bt Rovin D’Souza 4 – 1, Manav Panchal bt Khizar Raoof 4 – 1, Manan Chandra bt Malkeet Singh 4 – 2, Ishpreet Chadha bt Siddharth Parekh 4 – 2, Nitesh Madan bt Anurag Giri 4 – 3, Sandeep Gulati bt Abhimanyu Gandhi 4 – 2, Ketan Chawla bt Nitsh Madan 4 – 0, Bharat Sisodiya bt Laxman Rawat 4 – 3, Manan Chandra bt I H Manudev 4 – 2, Alok Kumar bt Sourav Kothari 4 – 0, Akshay Kumar bt Pandurangaiah 4 – 2, Ishpreet Chadha bt Shahbaaz Adil Khan 4 – 2, Himanshu Jain bt Manav Panchal 4 – 3, Lucky Vatnani bt Anand Raghuvanshi 4 – 1, Aditya Mehta bt Devendra Joshi 4 – 0, Pushpinder Singh bt I V Rajeev 4 – 0, J Varun Kumar bt Rupesh Shah 4 – 3, S. Dilip Kumar bt Kamal Chawla 4 – 2, Anuj Uppal bt Shivam Arora 4 – 3, Sandeep Gulati bt Rafath Habib 4 – 3, Devendra Joshi bt S. Shrikrishna 4 – 2, Aditya Mehta bt Rajat Kaneja 4-0.
Senior Women Billiards: Semifinals: Keerat Bhandaal bt Uma Devi R 2 – 1 (75-67, 70-76, 75-42); Aranxta Sanchez bt Neena Praveen 2 – 1 (71-75, 76-47, 76-32).
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