Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): A 21-year-old student of Vivekanand College, Chennai, S Shree Krishna shot to limelight at the 88th National Billiards and Snooker Championship on Friday when he overpowered the former national snooker champion and his fellow Petroleum Sports Promotion Board player Manan Chandra.
In a best of 13 frames, Krishna was right on cue in the six-red match hurrying towards a win against the ex-champion.
A confident, swaggering body language, splendid potting, precise cue-ball positioning, and automatic thought process were instrumental in Krishna racing away to a 5-0 vital lead over his experienced rival.
Manan, giving a semblance of a fight, managed to win the sixth frame, but Krishna soon regained his supremacy pocketing the next two frames with a degree of comfort for a 7-1 frame victory.
In another game, the national champion Vidya Pillai used her experience to gain advantage, edging out the most promising lady cueist of the country, Varshaa Sanjeev, by 4-3 frames to win the 6-red snooker match.
Precise potting, careful planning, intelligent safety exchanges, and the determination to come out on top were evident in the play of both the competitors.
It was Vidya who took the close first frame, but young Varshaa, playing with aggressive intent, pocketed the next two for a lead of 2-1 frames.
Vidya sensing the danger of Varsha running away with the game, slowed down the pace, rallying to take the fourth frame to restore parity at 2-2.
Varsha, nevertheless, again struck a purple patch to win the fifth frame leading by 3-2 frames at the stage. Bringing forth all her inputs of her game to the front, Vidya, who was already under pressure, went into a zone of deep concentration.
Capitalising on a couple of mistakes by Varshaa in the following two frames, Vidya romped home with consummate ease.
