BANGALORE, FEBRUARY 4: Meenal Bairagi's stranglehold over former champion Judith Walia continued as the Maharashtra cueist cruised to a 114-92, 114-52 victory to take the top position in Group C of the 8th National Women's Billiards Championship at the KSBA Hall on Friday.Qualifiers from as many as five groups were spotted at the end of the opening day of the three-ball game. On Saturday, qualifiers from the rest three will be decided, followed by the pre-quarterfinals and the quarter-finals.Defending champion Farah Khan was the most impressive winner of the day breezing past her Group A rivals, in a performance that justified her top seeding. Having lost her snooker title, the 23-year-old Bangalore lass was confidence personified against compatriot Jyothi Shetty notching up a facile 168-26, 166-29 win.In the evening, it was the turn of Usha Khandelwal to dance to Farah's tunes as the defending champ compiled breaks of 68 and 54 in the first and second frames respectively to finish her engagements with a 153-38, 157-49 win. Usha also made it to pre-quarters by virtue of her victory over Jyoti.Rajasthan's snooker champion Pooja Galundia struggled to get over her snooker hangover, as she pipped Tamil Nadu's Soumini Srinivas in a tight three-frame Group F encounter in this best of three half-hour format. A victory against Chitra Magimairaj in the morning having boosted her morale, Soumini won the first half-hour 77-70 only to force the best out of Pooja. Pooja bounced back to level the scores winning the next 30 minutes at 63-57 before an improved performance saw her scrape through 80-60 in the decider. Pooja needs a win against Chitra on Saturday to take the winner's slot from this pool.Group B was reduced to a two-horse affair with the withdrawal of last year's runner-up Amrita Mohapatra (Orissa). Aswini Puranik (MP) beat Karnataka's Sadhana Patel 69-53, 98-39 won the only match in the group to emerge the No 1.Lakshmi Suryanarayanan (Karnataka) and Renu Bharaktiya (MP) from Group D; Anuja Thakur and Ritu Srivastava from Group E were the others to enter the knockout on Friday.RESULTSGroup A: Farah Khan (Kar) bt Jyothi Shetty (Kar) 168-26, 166-29; Usha Khandelwal (Mah) bt Jyothi Shetty (Kar) 59-63, 74-43, 95-52; Farah bt Usha 153-38, 157-49.Group B: Sadhana Patel (Kar) w/o Amrita Mohapatra (Ori); Ashwini Puranik (MP) bt Sadhana Patel (Kar) 69-53, 98-39; Ashwini w/o Amrita.Group C: Judith Walia (Kar) bt Cynthia Mukherjee (WB) 118-39, 144-41; Meenal Bairagi (Mah) bt Cynthia 96-37, 162-37; Meenal bt Judith 114-92, 114-52.Group D: Lakshmi Suryanarayanan (Kar) bt Heena Khandelwal (Mah) 100-64, 84-82; Lakshmi bt Renu Bharaktiya (MP) 94-67, 77-74; Renu bt Heena 82-39, 54-50.Group E: Ritu Srivastava (MP) bt Bhanumati K Mendon (Kar) 54-77, 95-53, 93-77; Anuja Thakur (Mah) bt Bhanumati 91-50, 114-49; Anuja bt Ritu 128-47, 162-38.Group F: Soumini Srinivas (TN) bt Chitra Magimairaj (Kar) 84-80, 54-116, 8-61; Pooja Galundia (Raj) bt Soumini 70-77, 63-57, 80-60.Group G: Aditi Puranik (MP) bt Nilofer (TN) 56-43, 69-18; MVJ Fernandes (Kar) bt Aditi 75-34, 71-35; Umadevi bt Fernandes (Kar) 77-56, 120-53.Group H: Kamala Chandra Babu (TN) bt B Lavanya (TN) 87-24, 94-18; Kamala w/o Anjali Sengupta (Mah); TV Sridevi (Kar) w/o Anjali.
