Maharashtra’s Arantxa wins bronze in national billiards

​Mumbai: Maharashtra's Arantxa Sanchis has clinched the bronze medal in the billiards event of the 26th Ladies National Billiards and Snooker Championship 2019 played in Indore. The left-handed Pune-based cueist defeated Chitra Magimairaj of Karnataka 2-1 in the race to 75 points best of three frames third place match, a media release said on Wednesday. 

The former IBSF World Women's Billiards Championship in 2015 and twice National billiards champion (2012, 2015) was engaged in a keen tussle with Chitra and won a close first frame to take the lead. But Chitra fought back to narrowly win the second to level match scores and force the decider. 

In the third frame, Arantxa was a bit more consistent and managed to comfortably pocket the decisive final frame to complete a satisfying 75-62, 72-77 and 76-58 victory to secure her position as the third ranked player in the country, it said. Earlier in the semi-finals, Arantxa lost to eventual champion R Umadevi of Karnataka 0-2 (73-75, 74-79). 

In the quarter-finals, Arantxa had defeated Varshaa Sanjeev of Karnataka 2-1 (24-52, 51-36, 50-16).