Roberta Cutajar missed out on a dream European final in Sofia when she was beaten by Latvia`s Vasiljeva 4-2 yesterday.

The match, which started around noon, was played best out of 7 frames. It was the Latvian who had the better start by winning the first three frames. Vasiljeva even managed a 47 break in the second. Cutajar won the fourth and fifth frame but could not take the match to a deciding frame. Vasiljeva took an early 25 point lead in the sixth and managed to hold to the lead thus booking a place in the tomorrow`s final against Wendy Jans of Belgium.

It was only a few months ago that Roberta Cutajar got back to the practice tables. A few days later she was representing Malta in the European Snooker team championships and became the first Maltese female player to make it to a European semi-final.

Although Cutajar did manage some fine performances in those championships, the results for the Maltese ladies were not that impressive and the Malta Billiards and Snooker Association was highly criticised on a local sports magazine for presenting an inexperienced ladies team at the Dolmen last March.