KEIGHLEY'S Rebecca Kenna has lost in the semi-finals of the Women's World Championships for a third straight year.

The current world No 3, who was beaten in the last four by Ng On Yee two years ago at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds and last year by India's Vidya Pillai in Singapore, bowed out 4-0 to world No 1 and eventual winner On Yee this weekend in Malta.

The 29-year-old Kenna had to do it the hard way at the Dolmen Hotel in St Paul's as she had Thai prodigy Nutcharat Wongharuthai in her group, as she had at the previous ranking tournament – last month's British Open.

Kenna defeated Poland's Malgorzata Sikorska 3-0 (63-25, 62-22, 63-16) and 13-year-old Brazilian Nicolly Christo 3-0 (68-48, 69-31, 72-61) before facing 18-year-old British Open finalist Wongharuthai, who Kenna beat 2-1 in the group stages at Stourbridge Institute.

The Thai trailed 2-1 before coming through 3-2 (18-86, 59-58, 11-71, 50-35, 72-25) in Malta to top the group, with Kenna second in the first women's world championship played under the World Snooker Federation banner.

The former women's footballer then had to play in the initial knockout round to reach the quarter-finals and became the comeback queen on an exhausting day when she was at the table for eight hours, finishing at 1.30am with her semi-final starting eight-and-a-half hours later!

Kenna trailed Hong Kong's Yee Ting Cheung 3-0 in the last 16 before winning 4-3 (47-57, 34-55, 50-53, 68-21, 53-12, 58-9) and then recovered from 2-0 behind to defeat Thailand's Waratthanon Sukritthanes 4-2 (15-66, 13-61, 64-26, 58-9, 66-52, 56-45) in the quarter-finals.

In the semi-final against On Yee, Kenna was beaten 54-3, 76-34, 60-26, 69-52, but she was in good company as the Hong Kong woman won all 22 of her frames in Malta, defeating Maria Catalano 5-0 in the final.

The three-time world champion not only qualified for this week's mixed gender singles in Malta, as did Granger, but has also been awarded a wild card into next month's World Snooker Championship qualifiers for the Crucible.

On Yee, who nervously lost to Leeds' Peter Lines and Nigel Bond respectively in the qualifiers in 2016 and 2017, said after trouncing Catalano and winning 6,000 euros: "The most important thing was to earn a wild card for the World Championship qualifiers."

The next women's ranking tournament is the Festival of World Women’s Snooker at the Northern Snooker Centre on April 13-16.