Kelly Fisher will face Margaret Fefilova in the finals of the Women’s Poison VG 9-Ball Championship on Thursday. Both players had decisive wins on Wednesday to earn their spots in the final.
First up on Wednesday was Fisher taking on Japan’s Yuki Hiraguchi. Hiraguchi had won day two of the events round-robin stage, while Fisher had finished as a runner-up on day three, which was enough to earn her a wildcard spot in the final stage.
Fisher was her usual dominating self in the match with Hiraguchi. The match saw players facing off in races to five racks against the ghost in a “two out of three” format. It took Fisher just six racks in both sets to eliminate Hiraguchi. The third rack in both sets was what caused Fisher problems, as she ran out in all of the other racks. Hiraguchi had three misses across both sets on shots she might have let her attention lapse on. The misses led to Fisher with back to back 5-3 wins.
The second set of the day saw Margaret Fefilova with an even more dominating win over Turkey’s Eylul Kibaroglu. In the first set, Fefilova ran the first four racks before finally missing a 4-ball in the fifth rack. Even with that miss, Fefilova led the set 4-2 and would put it away on rack six with another break and run.
Kibaroglu came out and took a quick 1-0 lead in the second set, but failed to finish in her next four straight racks. By that time, Fefilova held a 3-1 lead that would prove to be insurmountable. Both players ran out in rack six for a 4-2 Fefilova lead and she expanded on that lead in the next rack with a table run for another 5-2 win.
Hiraguchi and Kibaroglu both earned $600 for their 3rd place finishes. Fisher and Fefilova will be playing for a $2000 first prize and $1200 second place prize.
The match will expand to races to six on Thursday and will kick off at 11:00 AM Eastern Time. Fans can catch the final match online at https://www.facebook.com/CueItUpPodcast.