Both players won hard fought close matches against their opponents on the final day of the 2017 “Yaqi Group Cup” Chinese Pool World Championship in Yu Shan, China.
The day’s matches were split in two with the ladies playing a session of sixteen racks first. Jin Peng Yu led this part of the match the entire session, but Xiao Fang Fu made a late comeback to only trail the match 9-7 at the break.
Next up was the men, and Yang Fan played to a 10-10 draw with his opponent, Bing Jie Chu in their first session.
The ladies then came back to finish their race to seventeen, and things came down to the wire at 16-16. The final game turned into a battle when Fu was unable to pocket the 8-ball. The players exchanged shots until Yu’s delicate safety attempt went awry and she gave up ball in hand on the 8-ball to a visibly relieved Fu, who happily pocketed the final 8-ball for her first World Championship.
The men’s final saw their race to twenty one come down to a 20-19 scoreline when Chu was unable to complete a tricky out and gave up an open table to Fan to finish off the match. Fan calmed his nerves long enough to run the final balls and earn his first World Championship.
Fu earned just under $60,000 in prize money for her win, and Fan earned just under $90,000 for his win.
The winners alongside the runner-ups and organizers
Han Yu and Yu-Lung Chang are the 2014 China Open Champions. The China Open began with 64 men and 48 women, all of whom qualified to be here by their performance records in their home federations or qualifying tournaments. This makes for very tough fields as no walk-ons are there to ease the path. Every match is a showcase.
In both the men’s and women’s divisions the event began with the players drawn into groups. The eliminations that occur here leave us with a final ladder that has 32 names on it for the men and for the ladies there are 16.
From here on in any player can win or lose on any table. You only have 16 players left and they have shown themselves to be the cream of the crop. From this round Ronglin Chang progressed by eliminating Johann Chua 11-7. Thorsten Hohmann eased by Radoslaw Babica 11-9 and Yu Lung Chang defeated Bing Jie Chu 11-6.
The Round of Eight did not take long as every victory was decisive. Ronglin Chang shut down Thorsten Hohmann 11-6 while Yu Lung Chang dispatched Lee Van Corteza 11-8. Nearby Carlo Biado finished the event for Shane Van Boening 11-4 and Jeffrey Ignacio did the same for Mika Immonen 11-6.
Four men left and each were only a pair of wins away from the glory. We expected these matches to be close but instead were surprised by the dominance of our winners. Yu Lung Chang let his skills shout out an 11-4 trouncing of Ronglin Chang and Jeffrey Igancio left Carlo Biado behind in an 11-6 dust storm.
Yu Lung Chang was determined and his focus proved invincible as he took the crown 11-5 over our runner-up Jeffrey Ignacio.
On the ladies charts we were already down to 16 players and every name reflected many National or World Titles. This was an extremely impressive field. The first eight matches found Rubelin Amit slipping past Chieh-Yu Chou 9-8 while Han Yu had an easier time with Yichen Liu 9-4. Sha Sha Liu continued her march besting Xinmei Liu 9-5 as Kelly Fisher bumped off Jing Wu 9-4.
The lower half of the bracket saw Siming Chen defeat Allison Fisher 9-5 and Akimi Kajatani keeping it close with a 9-8 escape from Pei Chen Tsai. Xiao-Ting Pan squeezed past Szu-Ting Kuo 9-8 while Ga Young Kim obliterated Nataliya Seroshtan 9-1.
The four matches in the quarter-finals witnessed Han Yu beating Rubelin Amit 9-7, Sha Sha Liu ruining the afternoon for Kelly Fisher 9-6, Siming Chen punching the ticket for Akimi Kajatani 9-2 and Ga Young Kim finding dead punch to best Xiao-Ting Pan 9-7.
What a powerhouse group for the semi-finals! All of these players have proven their ability to win the Big One. This time Han Yu prevailed over Sha Sha Liu 9-4 and Ga Young Kim earned her berth in the final with a 9-7 win over Siming Chen.
Our final match between Ga Young Kim and Han Yu found Han Yu pulling away and winning the title 9-5. AZB wishes to congratulate our champions and thank the promoters and all involved in putting this event on annually.
The China Open begins on Thursday, June 5, and we have received the draw for the first round. Players that play one another in the first round are grouped together.
