Pillai overcame Neena Praveen, also of Tamil Nadu, 3-1, while Sanchis defeated giant-killer Suniti Damani (West Bengal) 3-0 in the semifinals.
Sanchis played a crafty game as she repeatedly snookered Damani, who had earlier shocked last year’s runner-up Meenal Thakur (Maharashtra) in the quarterfinals, and came out a comfortable winner.
Pillai yet again lost the first frame, but bounced back strongly like she had done against Chitra Magimairaj (Karnataka) in the quarterfinals when she trailed 0-2.
Earlier, the 31-year-old Damani caused a big upset by knocking out Thakur 3-0 en route to the semifinals. Pillai came back from two frames down to beat Magimairaj 3-2. The turnaround came in the third when Magimairaj missed a yellow after potting the last red and the follow black.
Results: Semi-finals: Vidya Pillai (TN) bt Neena Praveen (TN) 3-1 (30-57, 60-49, 57-16, 60-17); Arantxa Sanchis (Mah) bt Suniti Damani (WB) 3-0 (42-14, 70(31)-02, 72-42(23). Quarterfinals): Neena P bt Keerath Bhandaal (Del) 3-2 (17-55, 54-34, 56-44, 20-62, 56-26); Vidya P bt Chitra Magimairaj (Kar) 3-2 (45-60, 34-44, 44-36, 54(33)-17, 42-35); Arantxa S bt Umadevi Nagaraj (Kar) 3-1 (71(31)-51, 61-40, 20-71, 67-23); Suniti D bt Meenal Thakur (Mah) 3-0 (47-32, 39-27, 52-13).