Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Mumbai, May 7: Top seed Ashwini Puranik will take on the formidable Judy Walia in the final of the all-India ladies prize-money snooker tournament. In the semi-finals today, Ashwini, the defending champion, beat Anuja Thakur in a replay of last year’s final, while third seed Judy edged out National champion Farah Khan in a marathon five-frame encounter.
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.
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 out of her hands.
The other semis was a routine affair with Ashwini taking the early surge and putting pressure on the young Anuja, who looked quite 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).
