"Happy For Women's Cue Sports In India": Anupama Ramachandran To NDTV

Anupama Ramachandran scripted history by becoming the first Indian woman to win the World Snooker title. The 23-year-old from Chennai showed tremendous grit and determination to beat Hong Kong's Ng On Yee to clinch the IBSF World Snooker (15-red) crown. Ramachandran started her journey at the age of 13 when she attended a casual English billiards workshop at the local Mylapore Club in Chennai during a summer camp. It has been a brilliant run for her with eight national junior titles and a World Open U-16 Snooker Championship win in 2017. A major high point of her career came in 2024 when she won the Asian snooker title.

In an interview with NDTV, Ramachandran opened up about her victory and explained how she was inspired by the women players who came before her and explained how her victory can become an important moment for women's cue sports in India.

"Definitely it has been a great time for women in sports. Be it the Commonwealth or Olympics, women have performed well and the women's cricket team also just won. I am the first Indian woman to have won this. Before this, Indian women reached the finals but they got silver. I am very pleased that I was the one who won it. Also, I have really been inspired by the women who have played for India before. Top players who were there when I started playing the game. So, I am really happy not just for me but for women's cue sports in India in general," Anupama Ramachandran told NDTV.

Ramachandran spoke at length about the perceptions that people have about snooker and even pointed out that although from outside it looks like a sport that requires a lot of patience, she revealed that players need to be aggressive.

"What I love about snooker is that it requires a lot of patience and at the same time, it requires you to be aggressive. When you look at it from the outside, it needs to be in a silent room and people do not make any noise. But, inside the player, you got to be aggressive. That is one thing that for a third person who is looking at the game, they might think it is a calm and silent game. But not for the players," she added.