There are sports stars emerging from India acing the snooker game Playing around the elongated table with a set number of balls that are to be shot with the help of the precise technique of sticks, also called the snooker, has become a lifestyle. Often seen around played by people for pleasure as a break from work, it is played professionally. From national to international tournaments, the world has seen brilliant snooker players. Even India, in the past several years, has witnessed an emergence of top-class snooker players who have made the nation proud. Here is taking a look at some of the greatest snooker players of India. VidyaPillai Tamil Nadu-VidyaViswanathanPillai is currently the second richest snooker player in India. In 2016, the Government of Karnataka bestowed her with the Ekalavya award for outstanding performance in Sports. Through her hard work and dedication, Vidya has won the Women's National Snooker Championship 10 times in her career. Not only that, but the sportsperson has also won the National Championship nine times. In 2013 she won the gold medal in the IBSF World Team Snooker Championship and in 2016 Gold in the IBSF Australian Women's Ranking Snooker Championship. In fact, Vidya was the first Indian woman to reach the finals of the WLBSA World Women's Snooker Championship in 2017 and took home a Silver medal. Yasin Merchant He is India’s first professional snooker player and has won the National Snooker championships three times - in 2001, 2000, and 1991. At Mumbai’s Khar Gymkhana, their first snooker hall is named after the sportsperson, called the Yasin Merchant Snooker Hall. Among the list of his achievements, in 2010, he won the silver medal at Asian Games China, a Bronze medal at Indoor Asian games at Macau in 2006, Snooker Doubles Gold Medal at Asian Games, and was awarded an Arjuna Award and Shiv Chattrapati Award in 1991. Aditya Mehta The former professional snooker player Aditya Mehta once reached the highest world ranking of 49. Mehta has participated in the World Snooker Tour and also reached the final of ranking event for the first time at the 2013 Indian Open, where he played Ding Junhui. Mehta is known for compiling a total of 41-century breaks, the highest of which was at the 2014 Paul Hunter Classic. Other snooker players from Indian are Wilson Jones, GeetSethi, PankajAdvani, GeetSethi, ArantxaSabchis, Lucky Vatnani, Sourav Kothari, Michael Ferreira, Ashok Sandilya, Chandra Hirjee, AmeeKamani, and Manan Chandra, to name a few.
