National champion Meenal Thakur of Mumbai survived a huge scare before prevailing over Tamil Nadu's Vidya Pillai 3-2 in a pulsating quarter-final in the seventh Bombay Gymkhana All India Ladies Open Snooker Tournament, sponsored by CYGNUS, on Friday.
Twice in arrears, a gallant Pillai fought back to take the best-of-five frames encounter into the decider. But Meenal's accurate potting and positioning saw her pull off an exciting 62-22, 35-77, 54-47, 17-58, 62-13 victory.
Meenal will face Karnataka's Chitra Magimairaj who rallied to a thrilling 61-45, 51-63, 18-56, 48-19, 50-40 win over Sangeeta Hemchand of Mumbai.
In contrast, Meenal's sister, defending champion Anuja Thakur came up with two significant breaks, 38 in the second frame and a 31 in the third, to crush R. Umadevi of Karnataka 56-23, 82-1, 64-47.
In the other semi-final, Anuja will take on the formidable Neeta Sanghvi of Mumbai who recovered from a 1-2 deficit to overcome Rajasthan's Pooja Galundia 52-30, 46-69, 43-62, 68-28, 52-16.
