I hope more girls take up snooker | By World Champion Anupama Ramachandran

I didn’t arrive in Doha feeling like a world champion. I had just finished playing a Heyball World Championship in Australia, got home for one day, and then flew straight to Qatar. No rest or reset. My body and game felt heavy.

In the first few matches, nothing clicked. I wasn’t striking the ball the way I know I can. I wasn’t confident either. I remember thinking that I just needed to somehow get through those early rounds.

When the knockouts began, I told myself to stop overthinking everything. Go back to basics. One ball at a time. Frame by frame. That was the only way forward.

I knew no Indian woman had ever won an IBSF world title. But that wasn’t something I carried into the final. I wanted to win for myself.

I wanted to win because I know how much I have worked for the sport. The “first Indian” part only hit me after the tournament was over.

Before the semi-finals, I had to talk to myself honestly. How often do you get to play a World Championship semifinal or final? Not often. Maybe not ever again.

I told myself I had to give everything I had, even if I didn’t feel at my best.

The final black

The final was emotional. When Ng On Yee missed the final black, it surprised me. When I potted the black, it felt like happiness, relief, disbelief, everything together. Even now, I don’t think it has fully sunk in.

But my story didn’t start in Doha.

It started when I was 13 or 14 at a summer camp in Chennai. My parents always put me in camps and I usually couldn’t wait for summer to end.

But that year, at the Mylapore Club, they had chess and snooker. I picked snooker.

After the camp ended, I told my mom I wanted to continue. She was shocked. I never asked to continue anything. I wasn’t serious at the time. I just enjoyed it.

For months, I played three days a week, two hours at a time, with other kids from the camp. That was it. Nothing ambitious. But some club members told my parents I should play more, that I had potential. I was shy and younger than most people in the room, so it took time. But I slowly started showing up more often.

My first big moment came when I played the Tamil Nadu state ranking event and finished runner-up in sub-juniors. Losing that final actually made me want to do better. It made me think, maybe I can really play this sport seriously.

Around the same time, a few girls who trained with me in the summer camp went to play in a World Junior Championship in Russia. It was another turning point. I wanted that too and play for India.

Finding my game, finding my people

My parents supported everything. One year after I started taking the sport seriously, they bought me a snooker table at home. That changed my entire trajectory. Without that table, I wouldn’t be here. It gave me hours and hours of solo practice, which is the most important part of snooker.

During the lockdown, I trained every single day. My then-coach, Saleem sir, would call me on video every day to guide me. We used that year to rebuild my game.

From 2023, I also started training with Nigel Bond, first in England and then in Saudi Arabia. Working with him changed the way I think about the game. Yes, he helped with technique, but more than that, he helped with strategy and how to handle pressure. Those sessions gave me confidence.

The last couple of months before the World Championship were tough. I was travelling a lot, switching between snooker and Heyball, playing back-to-back tournaments. It’s exciting but also exhausting. And sometimes exhaustion shows up quietly, in your timing, confidence, and mind.

Snooker is a mental sport. You sit and watch your opponent score for long stretches. Your mind can go anywhere if you don’t learn how to control it. My uncle Narayanan helped me train the mental side to stay calm and present.

There are stereotypes in our sport. People think snooker is only for rich people. Or that it’s gambling. Or something people do for fun in a club. That’s not what it is. Snooker is a competitive sport. It requires precision, discipline, and patience.

After my win, more people noticed the sport than I expected. It made me happy. But I also know women’s cue sports in India still have a long way to go.

My family has been my biggest support. I don’t have siblings, but I grew up in a joint family. My dad stepped back from work so he could travel with me. That made a huge difference.

My mom is a chartered accountant and has supported me through everything. My entire family supported getting the table at home. All of them played a part in helping me reach here.

What did the world title give me? A lot. What did it cost me? I honestly don’t know yet. Maybe I will understand that in a year or so.

I haven’t thought much about legacy. I’m still young. But the only thing I hope for is that more girls take up this sport and believe they belong here.

Today, there are so many women players around the world that young girls can look up to. That alone should make them feel like this sport is for them, too.

As told to Aswathy Santhosh