For some strange reason, Nocera went into sleep mode instead of stepping on the gas on the penultimate day of the Emaar-MGF Ladies Masters on Friday, but her countrywoman Virginie went into overdrive after a sloppy start.
After two straight 69s, Nocera returned an even-par 72 in the third round and remained at the top of the leaderboard with a three-day tally of six-under-par 210. Virginie shot a sizzling six-under-par 66 to move within three strokes of the leader on 213. Two strokes further back was the foursome of Martina Eberl (68), Lisa Hall (70), Marta Prieto (72) and Trish Johnson (72). After two quiet days, seasoned campaigner Laura Davies sputtered to life with a gritty 67 on another cold and windy day at the par-72, 6,558-yard course.

Back from her honeymoon in the Bahamas, Virginie seemed to be in the same mood on the first two days with rounds of 72 and 75. However, the two-time winner on the Ladies European Tour got into competitive mode just when she needed to.

With her hubby doubling up as a caddie, Virginie got to work after a disastrous start to her round. She three-putted the first hole -- most other pros too have failed to come to grips there -- from the left edge of the green. But after that blemish, she was spot-on with her game.

Interestingly, she needed a mere 19 more putts for the remaining 17 holes. With her immaculate iron-play, Virginie kept attacking the flag with regularity. In the process, she was hardly left with any long putts to hole. The two- and three-footers were child's play for the French pro.

"My wedge play was excellent. But it is not going to be easy tomorrow, Gwladys is up there," said a beaming Virginie, downplaying her chances of winning her first title of the season. "But I'll go for it."

Nocera never really went for it on the day. The opening-hole bogey only made things difficult for her. After going over the green, the 32-year-old French star chipped and two-putted for a bogey five. Though she fought back with a 12-foot birdie on the third hole, Nocera was not really on top of her game.

She lacked the desired focus. Moreover, her driving was quite patchy and her putter too went cold for the most part. She sank a four-footer for another birdie on the par-5 seventh hole. But she let slip the advantage after finding the fairway bunker with her drive on the ninth hole. She then found another bunker and duffed her chip to settle for a bogey.

She three-putted the par-3 12th hole. One-over for the day when she walked up to the 17th tee, she glanced at the leaderboard to see Virginie at three-under. She missed a birdie putt there but got one on her patented 18th hole, holing a downhill 10-footer. "Coming into the 18th, I thought a three-shot lead would be better than two," said Nocera. She had birdies there on the first two days as well.

Leading scores (after 54 holes): 210: Gwladys Nocera (Fra, 69, 69, 72); 213: Virginie Lagoutte-Clement (Fra, 72, 75, 66); 215: Martina Eberl (Ger, 76, 71, 68), Lisa Hall (Eng, 72, 73, 70), Marta Prieto (Esp, 73, 70, 72), Trish Johnson (Eng, 73, 70, 72); 216: Karen-Margrethe Juul (Den, 73, 73, 70).

Indians: 223: Tania Wadhwa (A, 74, 74, 75); 224: Smriti Mehra (82, 71, 71); 228: Meghna Bal (A, 78, 78, 72); 239: Sharmila Nicollet (A, 82, 78, 79); 245: Sanniya Sharma (78, 82, 85); 249: Shalini Malik (86, 80, 83); 253: Nonita Qureshi (82, 84, 87); 255: Nitika Jadeja (86, 83, 86).