Farah swings into semis

Farah swings into semis
ENS AND AGENCIES

BANGALORE, FEB 5: Defending champion Farah Khan of Karnataka defeated Kamala Chandra Babu of Tamil Nadu in the eighth women's National billiards championship on Saturday.

Farah pipped Kamala 143-68, 107-75, 162-64 and will meet Anuja Thakur of Maharasthra, who drubbed Lakshmi Suryanarayanan of Karnataka 100-74, 136-66, 133-88.

In other quarter-final matches, Meenal Bairagi of Maharashtra beat Pooja Galundia 129-34, 114-53, 157-67. Meenal will meet Uma Devi of Karnataka, who dropped a game against state-mate T V Sridevi before winning 107-42, 99-45, 77-113, 102-55.

Earlier, with less than a minute left on the clock in the decider, Sridevi came up with a skew-back canon that gave her a 64-63 lead in the pre-quarterfinal against MP's Ashwini Puranik. And even as she was heaving a sigh of relief about the lead, the bell tolled to signal the end of the match. Sridevi won the match 117-64, 71-76, 64-63 to enter the last eight stage.

That the match stretched into the third 30-minutes itself was of Sridevi'sown making. The Karnataka lass began well, compiling breaks of 23 on her third visit and 27 on her 10th to win the first frame at a lop-sided 117-64. But there ended her dominance of the proceedings.

It was not that Ashwini came up with any great billiards but Sridevi's form took an awful dip after the first frame. The potting was woeful as was her positioning and planning. It was lack of planning that led to her downfall in the second frame.

RESULTS
Quarter finals: Farah Khan (Kar) bt Kamal C Babu (TN) 143-68, 107-75, 162-64; Anuja Thakur (Mah) bt Lakshmi Suryanarayanan (Kar) 100-74, 136-66, 133-88; Meenal Bairagi (Mah) bt Pooja Galundia (Raj) 129-34, 114-53, 157-67; Uma Devi (Kar) bt T V Sridevi (Kar) 107-42, 99-45, 77-113, 102-55.

Pre-quarter finals: Lakshmi Surayanaranan (Kar) bt MVJ Fernandes (Kar) 82-69, 95-45; Anuja Thakur (Mah) bt Soumini Srinivas (TN) 129-70, 104-45; Farah Khan (Kar) bt Judith Walia (Kar) 156-64, 140-71; Kamala Chandra Babu (TN) bt Sadhana Patel (Kar)65-33; 74-34; Pooja Galundia (Raj) bt Ritu Srivastava (MP) 123-21, 111-38; Meenal Bairagi (Mah) bt Renu Bharaktiya (MP) 102-57, 101-74; Umadevi (Kar)w/o Usha Khandelwal (Mah); TV Sridevi (Kar) bt Ashwini Puranik (MP) 117-64, 71-76, 64-63.

Preliminary league
Group F: Pooja Galundia bt Chitra Magimairaj (Kar) 55-91, 105-80, 105-62. Group G: Umadevi (Kar) bt Aditi Puranik (MP) 98-27, 81-51; MVJ Fernandes (Kar) bt Nilofer (TN) 50-39, 86-57.
Group H: B Lavanya (TN) w/o Anjali Sengupta (Mah); Kamala Chandra Babu (TN) bt TV Sridevi (Kar) 90-67, 84-113, 74-68.