It was a see-saw battle between the two Karnataka cueists, with the younger Farah looking the more dominant. She managed to take the lead twice but saw a calm Judy catch up with her.

It all boiled down to the decider where an error-prone Farah tilted the match in her opponent's favour. With the blue ball blocking the green, both players played the yellow, the reds having been potted. Farah messed up her chances when she potted the yellow, and then fouled with the green.

This saw Judy get a free ball where she went for the black. But the ordeal continued for Farah as she fouled three times to gift around 20 points to her statemate. The match gradually slipped outof her hands.

The other semi was a routine affair with Ashwini taking the early surge and putting pressure on the young Anuja, who looked vulnerable. Asked about tomorrow's final, Ashwini said, ``Judy is a very tough player. That makes things more exciting.''

The quarter-final played earlier in the day offered no surprises as all the higher seeds made it to the last four stage without much ado, except for Farah, who got a scare from Sangeeta Hemchand.

Results (prefix denotes seeding)
Semis: 1-Ashwini Puranik (MP) bt Anuja Thakur (Mah) 3-1 (63-29, 72-13, 23-52, 61-28); 3-Judy Walia bt 2-Farah Khan 3-2 (27-65, 58-28, 26-59, 58-25, 75-27); (QF): Ashwini bt Kamla Chandra Babu (TN) 3-0 (52-50, 64-15, 49-20); Anuja bt Jagruti Patel (Mah) 3-0 (50-34, 63-22, 71-29); Judy bt 4-Neeta Sanghvi (Mah) 3-1 (50-11, 48-41, 25-57, 40-24); Farah bt Sangeeta Hemchand (Mah) 3-2 (20-49, 90-29, 23-48, 48-46, 52-11).

Sitwala dazzles
Dhruv Sitwala (35) upset holder Siddarth Parekh (40) 105-64,107-70 in the third-round of the Sushil R Ruia Open Handicap snooker tournament, sponsored by Selvel and Consultant, at the Matharpacady Club, Mazgaon.

Other results
Third-round: B Fulchand (35) bt S Madan (60) 98-93, 121-64; SK Mehta (55) bt P Kulkarni (55) 112-101, 118-96