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Draw Made For US Open 9-Ball Championship

The draw for the 43rd US Open 9-Ball Championship has been made, with Jayson Shaw to begin his defense against Marcus Weston at Mandalay Bay Resort, Las Vegas on Sunday, April 21.
 
The draw was seeded with a golf-style category system adopted, which took in rankings from across the pool world including WPA World Ranking, BCA Standings and Fargo Rating. As defending champion Shaw was seeded No.1, while five-time US Open champion Shane Van Boening is seeded second as the highest ranked American player.
 
Broadcast details for the 2019 US Open 9-Ball Championship will be announced shortly. Live rack-by-rack scoring will be available throughout the event at www.matchroompool.com thanks to Matchroom Multi Sport’s partnership with CueScore.
 
The draw, brackets and match schedule can be viewed now at https://cuescore.com/tournament/US+Open+9-ball+Championship/5185877
 
Note: Should any players featured in the draw not participate in the event, they will be replaced directly by the first player on the event waiting list to accept a spot in the tournament, irrespective of where the new player would have featured in any seeding category.
 
All matches at the US Open 9-Ball Championship takes place April 21-26 at Mandalay Bay Resort, Las Vegas. Matches are race to 11, winner breaks, except the final which is race to 13. The draw and match schedule for the first stage of the tournament is available now at www.matchroompool.com.
 
Tickets for the 43rd US Open 9-Ball Championship are still available at www.matchroompool.com from as little as $10 with VIP packages also available for the final three days of the tournament.
 
The tournament will be split into two stages with the full field playing double elimination down to the final 16 from Sunday April 21st until Tuesday April 23rd across multiple tables. From Wednesday April 24th until Friday April 26th the final 16 players will play straight knockout in the TV Arena in front of a global television audience.
 
US OPEN | ROUND ONE DRAW
 
Jayson Shaw vs. Marcus Westen
Tom Staveley vs.Jason Williams
Hunter Lombardo vs. Kosuke Tojo
Radwan Jameel R Sorouji vs. Tommy Tokoph
Naoyuki Oi vs. Marco Vignola
Alex Montpellier vs. Jason Klatt
Martin Daigle vs. Patrick Flemming
Angelo Salzano vs. Corey Deuel
Petri Makkonen vs. Marcel Price
Peter Busarac vs. Amar Kang
Franklin Hernandez vs. Ellis Brown
Paul Jaurez vs. Justin Bergman
James Aranas vs. Roderick Malone
Masato Yoshioka vs. Erik Hjorleifson
Stephen Folan vs. Jochen Kluge
Jon Demet vs. Toru Kurabayashi
Fedor Gorst vs. Gary Onomura
Stanley Walton vs. Paul Duell
Omar Al-Shaheen vs. David Dimmitt
Amer Al-Darbani vs. Mateusz Sniegoki
Dali Lin vs. Fabio Rizzi
Jason Hitzfeld vs. Jeremy Jones
Philipp Stojanovic vs. Steve Van Ness
Dalibor Nikolin vs. Francisco Sanchez Ruiz
(Kevin) Cheng Yu Hsuan vs. Christopher Lawson
Mohammed Ali N Al Eid vs. Ivo Aarts
Rodney Morris vs. Ken Kuwana
Deomark Alpajora vs. Radoslaw Babica
Marc Bijsterbosch vs. Ritchie Ogawa
Gary Urinoski vs. Danny Olson
Toan Nguyen vs. Bahram Lofty
Giuseppe Iacobucci vs. Ko Pin-Yi
Carlo Biado vs. Fahad Salem N Alharbi
Kenichi Uchigaki vs. Tyler Fleshman
Matt Edwards vs. Marco Penta
Hideaki Arita vs. Maksim Dudanets
Jeff De Luna vs. Torsten Schmitt
Chris Robinson vs. Rob Hart
Marco Teutscher vs. Raymund Faraon
Yip Kin Ling Leo vs. Dennis Orcollo
David Alcaide vs. Jorg Kellner
Blake Baker vs. Mitch Ellerman
Siming Chen vs. Mohamed Baabad
Jamal Oussi vs. Hoang Duong Quoc
Liu Haitao vs. Patrick Griess
Mike Stalk vs. John Schmidt
Justin Espinosa vs. Nguyen Phuc Long
Koh Yong Lee Randolph vs. Eklent Kaci
Ko Ping-Chung vs. Sami Koylu
Cole Gibbons vs. Brian Sanders
Brandon Shuff vs. Michael Yednak
Robert Hewings vs. Michael Dechaine
Konrad Juszczyszyn vs. John Chapman
Luis Guerrero vs. Hayato Hijikata
Kenny Loftis vs. Corey Harper
Michael Hutcheson vs. Thorsten Hohmann
Johnny Archer vs. Kurt Kobayashi
Konrad Piekarski vs. Roberto Gomez
Jani Siekkinen vs. Damian Pongpanik
Bora Anar vs. Alex Pagulayan
Sangin Pehlivanovic vs. Bryan Farah
Ching-Shun Yang vs. Milos Verkic
Kings Santy vs. Michael Delawder
Jason McClain vs. Alexander Kazakis
Joshua Filler vs. Matt Krah
Thomas Welle vs. David Anderson
Jalal Yousef vs. Henrik Larsson
Tom Griffith vs. Roman Hybler
Jeffery Ignacio vs. Lefteris Georgiou
James Davee vs. Kostas Koukiadakis
Hsu Kai-Lun vs. Adam King
Ralph Eckert vs. Mika Immonen
Wu Kun Lin vs. Kuo Szu-Ting
Kang Lee vs. Ernesto Dominguez
Darren Appleton vs. Terry Spalding
Patrick Holtz vs. Richard Halliday
Tyler Styer vs. Kelii Chuberko
Che-Wei Fu vs. Josh Roberts
John Barton vs. Zachary Bos
Johann Dominik Hiber vs. Wu Jiaqing
Dennis Grabe vs. Lee Heuwagen
Jeffrey Jimenez vs. Ronald Regli
Liu Ri Teng vs. Gwyn Spooner
Arnar Peterson vs. Chang Yu-Lung
Wang Can vs. Dejan Sipkovski
Jonathan Mcdowell Pakieto vs. Francisco Bustamante
Max Eberle vs. Robert Goddard
Florida Pro Tour vs. Aloysius Yapp
Skyler Woodward vs. Luu Minh Phuc
Stephen Holem vs. Imran Majid
Jason Theron vs. Katsuyuki Yamamoto
Stan Tourangeau vs. Ruslan Chinakov
Wojciech Szewczyk vs. Renato Camantigue
James Adams vs. Marek Kudlik
Brendan Ng vs. Paddy McLoughlin
Brian Parks vs. Niels Feijen
Chang Jung-Lin vs. Roland Stock
John Moody Sr vs. Adam Lilley
Nick Malaj vs. Dimitri Jungo
Francesco Candela vs. Tomasz Kaplan
Mario He vs. Michael Pruitt
Cheng-Chieh Liu vs. Tommy Kennedy
Vilmos Foldes vs. Marc Vidal Claramunt
Max K Reyes vs. Billy Thorpe
Dang Jin Hu vs. Ben Crawley
Jamie White vs. Tony Chohan
Gabe Owen vs. Gary Lutman
Elliot Sanderson vs. Robbie Capito
Warren Kiamco vs. Mark Showalter
Brendon Bektashi vs. Hsu Jui-An
Patrick Mannillo vs. Melinda Huang
Ryo Yokawa vs. Chris Melling
Ralf Souquet vs. Molrudee Kasemchaiyanan
Seiji Kuwajima vs. Simon Pickering
Earl Strickland vs. Pedro Botta
Steve Lingelbach vs. Dennis Hatch
Donny Mills vs. Eugene Villena
Mark Foster vs. Shaun Wilkie
Kim Laaksonen vs. Chris Alexander
Steven Lingafelter vs. Albin Ouschan
John Morra vs. Marco Spitzky
Adam Mscisz vs. Marlon Manalo
Alejandro Carvajal vs. Dustin Dixon
Philipps Yee vs. Johann Chua
Mieszko Fortunksi vs. Chris McDaniel
Robby Foldvari vs. Yukio Akagariyama
Manny Perez vs. Nicolas Charette
Abdullah Saeed O Alshammari vs. Shane van Boening

White gets by Smith twice to win 6th Annual Turkey Bowl at the Steakhorse in Spartanburg

Hunter White

Two former winners on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour squared off on Thanksgiving weekend (Nov. 24-25) in the finals of the tour’s 6th Annual Turkey Bowl. Hunter White, who, as a junior player, won three events on the tour two years ago, went undefeated through a record field of 76 entrants (last year’s Turkey Bowl drew 66). White had to defeat Chase Smith twice, whose last appearance in a Q City 9-Ball winners’ circle occurred in September 2017. The $1,000-added event, which featured competitors from eight states (WI, MI, VA, TN, NC, SC, GA & FL) and Germany, was hosted by Steakhorse Restaurant & Billiards in Spartanburg, SC.
 
They met first in a winners’ side semifinal, as former BEF Junior Champion (14-and-under Boys, 2013) Sergio Rivas and Lauren Kauffman squared off in the other one. In their first of two, White and Smith battled to double hill before White finished it 7-5 (Smith racing to 6). Rivas joined White for the hot seat match, having shut Kauffman out. White claimed the hot seat in a double hill win over Rivas and waited for Smith to return.
 
On the loss side, Smith picked up Rob Hart, who’d defeated Mackie Lowery 5-4 (Lowery racing to 6) and Josh Long 5-2. Kauffman drew David Anderson, the winner of the very first stop on the tour, six years ago, who’d eliminated Michael Chapman 8-5 and another junior player, Cameron Lawhorne 8-1.
 
Anderson jumped right into the quarterfinals when Kauffman forfeited their match. He was joined by Smith, who’d downed Hart 6-1. With Anderson racing to 8 in the quarterfinal match, Smith defeated him 6-1 to face Rivas in the semifinals.
 
Rivas slipped a gear, so to speak, and managed to chalk up only one rack of the 10 he needed to win the semifinal. Smith, in the meantime, chalked up the six he needed for a re-match against White in the finals.
 
White and Smith fought a second double hill battle, with the same result. With Smith racing to 6 in the first of potentially two sets, White chalked up his seven racks first and claimed the event title.
 
Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked Dayne Miller and his Steakhorse staff, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, Bar Pool Tables, Delta 13 Racks, AZ Billiards and Professor Q-Ball. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (Dec. 1-2), will be hosted by Speakeazy Billiards in Sanford, NC.
 

World Cup of Pool Welcomes Global Superstars to London

Following yesterday’s announcement of the European contingent for the 2017 World Cup of Pool, the rest of the field can now be revealed. With ten teams from Asia and six from around the rest of the world, some of the biggest names in the game will be coming to the York Hall in London to contest the $250,000 prize fund.

 

They include defending champions, Ko Pin Yi and Chang Yu Lung of Chinese Taipei, as well as former World Pool Champion Wu Jiaqing who shocked the pool world winning as a 16 year-old in 2005. He teams up Dang Jinhu to represent China.

 

Elsewhere, Shane Van Boening is chasing his second World Cup of Pool title, this time in the company of Skyler Woodward, and under-the-radar Filipinos Johan Chua and Carlo Biado will offer a fierce challenge.

 

The remaining teams are:

 

China – Wu Jiaqing / Dang Jinhu

Chinese Taipei – Ko Pin Yi / Chang Yu Lung

Hong Kong – Andrew Kong / Lo Ho Sum            

India – Raj Hundal / Amar Kang

Indonesia – Irsal Afrinneza Nasution / Muhammad Bewi Simajuntak

Japan – Naoyuki Oi / Hijikata Hayato

Malaysia – Kok Jken Yung & Muhammad Almie 

Philippines – Carlo Biado / Johann Chua

Singapore – Toh Lian Han and Aloysius Yapp

Thailand – Amnuayporn Chotipong / Tanut Makkamontree

 

Australia – Justin Campbell /Michael Caccioli

Canada – Alex Pagulayan / John Morra (TBC)

Kuwait – Bader Al Alawi / Mohammad Saleh Al Kashawi

New Zealand – Matt Edwards / Toar Dotulong

South Africa – David Anderson / Francois Ellis

USA – Shane Van Boening / Skyler Woodward

 

Commencing on Tuesday June 13 and culminating with the final on the evening of Sunday 18, the event will be played to a single elimination format over six days with two sessions a day. There are 31 matches in total.

 

The draw will be announced on Monday 8th May.

 

Tickets are on sale now at www.matchroompool.com priced at just £10.00 per evening session (Tuesday to Sunday) and £8.00 per weekend afternoon session. Tuesday to Friday afternoons are free. A season ticket covering all sessions is priced at £60.00.

 

The World Cup of Pool will carry a $250,000 prize fund including $60,000 for the champions. The event will be produced by Matchroom Sport Television and televised live on Sky Sports as well as other stations around the world. It is then syndicated internationally as 31 x 1 hour programmes.

 

2017 WORLD CUP OF POOL is sponsored by Rasson Billiards who supplies the Official Table; the cloth is supplied by Iwan Simonis and the Official Balls are Super Aramith by Saluc. Predator is the Official Cue and Chalk of the event.

 

Lindenwood University Students Victorious at 74th ACUI Collegiate Nationals

Landon Shuffett (photo courtesy of Ben Litvak)

The Association of College Unions International (ACUI) held its 74th collegiate national billiards championships at Virginia Tech on May 30-31, 2014.  Past ACUI winners include touring professionals Nick Varner, Max Eberle, Adam Smith, and Eleanor Callado.
 
Students qualified for the 2014 Championships by placing in the top 25% of a number of qualifying tournaments across the U.S. between October and April.  ACUI invited 79 men and 25 women; 51 men and 16 women registered and played at Virginia Tech.
 
Men’s Final Results (top 25%)
1st Landon Shuffett, Lindenwood University
2nd David Anderson, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
3rd Sharik Sayed, Lindenwood University
4th Neight Mindham, University of Wisconsin
5th-6th Lee Nathanson, University of Maryland, College Park
Awais Hussain, Harvard University
7th-8th Sean Sommers, Lindenwood University
Logan Brummitt, UNC Charlotte
9th-12th Carter Herrmann, California State University, Sacramento
Bryson Bonham, Virginia Tech
Jaydan Hergott, Lindenwood University
Will Hill, East Texas Baptist University
 
Women’s Final Results (top 25%)
1st Briana Miller, Lindenwood University
2nd Annie Nord, Southern Illinois University School of Dental Medicine
3rd Jackie Sanchez, Florida State University College of Medicine
4th Giovanni Aviles, University of Illinois at Chicago
 
ACUI wishes to thank the staff of Virginia Tech for their outstanding support for this year’s event.  The organization is currently seeking hosts for sectional and independent qualifying tournaments in the 2014-2015 season, as well as a national host for next summer’s 2015 Table Tennis and 9-ball Championships.  For more information, please visit www.acui.org/billiards.

Linares, Flores capture college 9-ball titles

The top three finishers in each division with Betsy Sundholm

Veteran Raymond Linares and newcomer Andrea Flores emerged victorious in the annual Association of College Unions International (ACUI) collegiate 9-ball Championships at Arizona State University on June 28-30, 2013.  Linares, capturing his third ACUI title, is a student at Miami Dade College-Kendall Campus, while Andrea Flores, in her first ACUI appearance, hails from Portland Community College in Oregon.  
 
Throughout the college pool season (October through April), hundreds of students played in various regional and independent qualifying tournaments across the nation.  All in all, 48 men and 24 women were able to make the trip to Arizona State.
 
Linares was a favorite before the first ball was sunk, having won two previous ACUI titles and several APA amateur titles.  After falling short in his attempt last year to tie for a record third consecutive win, Linares dedicated himself to mental and physical preparation, surging through the winners’ bracket with victories over Zak McKee (8-4), Gilmer (8-2), Elvis Tran (8-2), David Anderson (8-3), and Barker (8-3) to position himself comfortably in the hot seat.  Barker emerged from the One-loss side with confidence and prowess, defeating Linares 8-5 in the first set of the finals.  Between sets, though, Barker agreed to Linares’ request to rack-your-own, and this gave Linares just the edge he needed to capture a decisive victory in the second set, 8-1.  
 
Meanwhile, the quiet, unknown Flores was undefeated in the Women’s chart, perhaps shocking her more experienced opponents.  After a first-round bye, she defeated Samantha Adler (7-5), Annie Nord (7-6), and Audrey Wong (7-2) before defeating her eventual finals foe, Karen Zeng, another newcomer out of Carnegie Mellon University (7-3). On the one-loss side, Zeng dispatched 3-year veteran Cindy Ho (7-3), to face Flores again in a late-night finals matchup.  The score see-sawed early, but Flores jumped ahead 4-2, only to lose 4 straight games to a deficit of 6-4, and it looked like she would force a second match to claim the victory.  But Flores never gave up, and battled back to hill-hill, eventually winning the nail-biter game for the Women’s Division victory.  
 
Sportsmanship winners, chosen by peer vote, were Cindy Ho of Sacramento State University and Stefan Le of University of North Carolina-Charlotte.  Break Contest winners were Georgia Tech’s Pete Vieira and UNC Charlotte’s Lilly Pham.  
 
ACUI has sponsored a collegiate national billiards championship since 1937, except during wartime; past winners include touring pros Max Eberle and Eleanor Callado, as well as Hall-of-Famer Nick Varner.  ACUI wishes to thank the staff of Arizona State University for their outstanding support for this year’s event.  The organization is currently seeking hosts for sectional and independent qualifying tournaments in the 2013-2014 season, as well as a national host for next summer’s 2014 Table Tennis and 9-ball Championships.  For additional information about the ACUI 9-ball Championships, visit www.acui.org/billiards or the Facebook groups “ACUI 9-ball” and “2013 ACUI 9-ball Championships.”

ACUI Announces Collegiate National Contestants

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The Association of College Unions International (ACUI) announces its list of contestants invited to the 73rd collegiate pocket billiards national championships, which will take place at Arizona State University’s “Sparky’s Den” on June 28-29, 2013.  ACUI is a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to enhancing campus life.  With 41 men and 23 women registered for 9-ball, 2012 was the largest field in the 75-year history of the ACUI Pocket Billiards program.  With the list of 77 men and 38 women below invited for 2013, the path is paved for a new record to be set.

Men’s Division

Tommy Adair
Hussain Aleid
Abdulaziz Alkhan
Ashkanov Apollon
Taylor Axley
Skyler Banfill
Charles Barker
Ernesto Bosque
Douglas Cady
Justin Chan
James Chen
Wilson Dorsey
Sajal Ghimire
Jaydan Hergott
Carter Herrmann
William Hill
Ben Hockman
Dustin Hoffman
Kevin Hsiao
Minghe Hu
Bo Jin
Max Johnson
Ali Jomah
Matt Keith
Tai Lam
Stefan Le
Xiaohang Li
Ben Litvak
Alex Mann
David Masse
Zachary McKee
Paul Min
Derek Morris
Hesam Mosharraf
Hee Suk (Brian) Myung
Dan Otto
Brantley Oxendine
Sameer Pandit
Alex Pham
Andrei Popa
Mohan (Gordon) Qian
Ben Reynolds
Khadaffy Ripors
Winstone Seow
Matt Seus
Stephen Skvarka
Thomas Smith
William Stem
Nathan Sweitzer
Corey Sykes
Cody Terry
Jonathan Ting
Nghi Ton
Elvis Tran
Nguyen Tran
Garrett Trickey
Pete Vieira
Samay Wadhawan
Philip Walker
Jia Hao (Jim) Wang
David Williams
Gallen Wong
Justin Wood
Yihao (Gary) Wu
Wenjie Wu
Jinghui Wu
Stephen Wyatt
Rui Xing
Yu-Han Yang
Sibo Zhang
Wucheng (Jimmy) Zhou
University of Wisconsin Whitewater
University of Montana
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Portland Community College
Minnesota State University-Mankato
West Virginia University
Weber State University
Florida State University
Texas A&M University
California State University-Fresno
Carnegie Mellon University
University of Wisconsin Whitewater
Mississippi State University
Mississippi State University
East Carolina University
Lindenwood University
Sacramento State
East Texas Baptist University
University of Delaware
West Virginia University
University of Michigan
University of Illinois
Purdue University
North Dakota State University
St. Cloud State University
University of Montana
University of Maryland Baltimore County
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
University of Utah
Miami Dade College-Kendall Campus
Radford University
University of Wisconsin Whitewater
Fitchburg State University
University of Akron
University of Michigan
Darton College
Portland Community College
Indiana University
Lindenwood University
University of North Carolina at Pembroke
California State University-Northridge
University of Texas-Austin
Indiana University
Indiana University
University of Arkansas
California State University-Long Beach
University of Michigan
Oregon State University
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Virginia Tech
James Madison University
University of Maryland
West Virginia University
Virginia Tech
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Purdue University
University of Texas-Dallas
University of Texas-San Antonio
Portland Community College
University of Texas Tyler
Georgia Tech
Penn State University
University of North Carolina at Pembroke
University of Utah
University of Massachusetts-Boston
San Francisco State University
University of Wyoming
Indiana University
Purdue University
University of Utah
Lindenwood University
Purdue University Calumet
University of Maryland
Purdue University
University of Utah

Women's Division

Samantha Adler
Cathy Jo Sawyer Almanza
Giovanni Aviles
Federica Bertolini
Miranda Blazek
Rachel Cooper
Lyndsey Day
Tam Do
Megan Erickson
Ashley Ewaniuk
Yuna Farah
Andrea Flores
Ashley Gardner
Jocelyn Gonzalez
Xinran Hai
Cindy Ho
Junyu Hou
Jessica Jahn
Yenyen Li
Aislinn McCann 
Amanda Nguyen
Minh-Phuong (Kristie) Nguyen
Annie Nord
Lilly Pham
Kacy Pugh
Vanessa Rabito
Krystle Radtke
Stacey Ann Rubio
Rachny Soun
Amber Sullins
Samantha Tsang
Rebbecca Weber
Sarah Weissberger
Audrey Wong
Meng Yi Li
Kelly Zahn
Yutong (Karen) Zeng
New York University
McLennan Community College
University of Illinois – Chicago
Lindenwood University
Northern Wyoming Community College
California State University – Long Beach
Florida State University
Portland Community College
Illinois Institute of Technology
Curry College
Utah State University
University of Massachusetts – Boston
Portland Community College
College of William & Mary
Portland Community College
Indiana University – Bloomington
Sacramento State
University of Houston
Spokane Falls Community College
California State University-San Bernardino
Virginia Tech 
University of Houston
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Illinois Wesleyan University
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
The University of Akron
University of Tennessee Knoxville
University of Wyoming
Florida International University
James Madison University
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
Howard Community College
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
James Madison University
California State University – Northridge
University of Utah
Lindenwood University
Carnegie Mellon University

 

Scholarship money and trophies are awarded to the top 3 men and top 3 women.  ACUI additionally awards medals for sportsmanship (by peer vote) and Best Break (by contest). 
 
For additional information about the ACUI 9-ball Championships, visit www.acui.org/billiards or the Facebook groups “ACUI 9-ball” and “2013 ACUI 9-ball Championships.”

Desert Storm Sweeps Into the World 9-Ball Final 64

Judgment Day at the 2012 World 9-ball Championship in Doha, Qatar lived up to expectations as the pool gods passed down plenty of surprising verdicts and left us with a final 64 that promises an all-time classic shootout for pool’s biggest prize.

Pool fans around the globe can now look forward to three solid days of one intriguing match after the next, as the road to the world title picks up a massive head of steam.   All the matches now become a race to 11, alternate break. The semi-finals and  final will take place on June 29th, with the final being a race to 13.

Not surprisingly, the Philippines brings the largest contingent into the single elimination stage, with a power house lineup of 13 players out of their 17 original entries having qualified. Taiwan has put in its usual impressive performance with seven of its players having gone through. Japan has looked extremely strong so far and six players in the final 64 are a testament to a high grade effort on the table for the Japanese.

Two surprising developments so far point to a massive shift in the global pool landscape.  The USA will have no representation in the final 64 of the World 9-ball Championship, while the tiny country of Kuwait will have four players competing for glory. 

Indeed the pool world seemed to be turned upside down from the opening rack inside the cool confines of the Al Sadd Sports Club on Tuesday as a handful of big names were given their walking papers straight away.

England’s Chris Melling was surely on nearly everyone’s list as one of a handful of guys you’d expect to see go deep into this tournament.  But after losing to the Philippines underrated Jundel Mazon on Day 1, Melling had to face another rising prospect in Nikolaos Malaj from Albania in a make or break match. 

Unfortunately for Melling  the 25 year old Malaj, who actually resides in Athens, Greece, is where the Brit was just a few short years ago; hungry for success and with plenty of game to make his dreams come true.  Malaj was down 5-2 but pounced on one mistake by Melling, then confidently marched to the finish line with a strong 9-6 victory.

“I know all these guys and they’re all good,” Malaj said after his impressive win.  “But I’m not scared of anyone. I know I can beat all of them. Why not? It’s just one match.” 

The USA’s Shane Van Boening said earlier in the day that winning the World 9-ball Championship would be his highest accomplishment in pool.  But Van Boening’s dream of 9-ball supremacy will have to wait yet another year as he was steamrolled by the Philippines’ Mazon.  The 36 year old Mazon, who resides in Cavite outside of Manila, has quietly worked his way into being a top tier player in the Philippines and has the goods to go far in this event.

The bloodbath for some of pool’s top names didn’t stop there.  The Netherland’s Niels Feijen looked set to qualify as he led Japan’s Naoyuki Oi  8-5. But Oi stormed back and won the match at the wire, 9-8. 

China’s Fu Jian Bo trailed his entire match against Vietnamese newcomer with the rather hip-hop sounding name, Do The Kein.  Do never flinched against the more experienced Fu and won handily 9-5.

Finland’s Mika Immonen nearly faced the wrath of the pool gods too as he was taken to the absolute limit by a very tough Iranian player, Ali Pordel. At 8-all and with just four balls left on the table, Immonen pocketed a near impossible half table bank in the corner on the six ball to clinch the match and a spot in the final 64.

“I’m feeling super, super relieved right now,” the two time former world champion said. “I make that six ball, I win. I miss it, I lose.”

When asked what he thought about the volume of new talent emerging at this year’s championship, Immonen wasn’t ready to give up his elite mantle just yet.

“Well, you have the old guard guys and then you have a lot of the new guys. They play good that’s for sure. But we’ll see how they hold up under the pressure.”

Easily one of the best stories to come out of this year’s World 9-ball Championship is the marked improvement of players from the Middle East, especially Kuwait.  The Kuwaitis are surely no fluke as they play strong and confident pool. This was exemplified by Khaled Al Mutairi in his early match against European number one, Dimitri Jungo of Switzerland.

The two fought tooth and nail the entire match and any regular observer of the game had to figure it would be the Kuwaiti who would fold. But with the pressure nearly unbearable late in the match, Al Mutairi showed impressive fortitude. Tied at 8, he lost position on the 8-ball, but proceeded to pocket a three quarter table length thin cut shot to seal the victory. 

The four Kuwaiti players in the knockout stage marks the first time ever Kuwait has had any player reach the round of 64 in a World 9-ball Championship.  So how did Kuwait start to produce such good pool talent?

According to team manager Mohammed Al-Sulaiman, billiard sports are massively supported by the government in Kuwait.  All the team members keep regular jobs working in some government ministry but train regularly and enter plenty of local, regional and international events. Four Kuwaitis even traveled to the US last year to compete in the prestigious US Open.  Kuwait has won Arab and Gulf championships and taken home a slew of medals at regional Olympic-type competitions.

“Other pool players know who we are and that we are good players,“ Al Mutrairi said. “But people and fans outside of Kuwait don’t know that we can play.”

They certainly do now. 

The WPA will be providing full up to the minute coverage of the 2012 World 9-ball Championship via its website at www.wpapool.com.   There you can follow the action through our live scoring platform, articles with insights and analysis, and updated brackets.  Fans can also get updates via the WPA Twitter page, @poolwpa.com.

Fans can also access live scoring through the official website of the Qatar Billiards and Snooker Federation at:  http://www.qbsf.net/en/live_score.php. 

*The World Pool And Billiard Association(WPA) is the international governing body of the sport of pocket billiards. 

The prize breakdown is as follows:
Champion – $40,000
Runner-up – $20,000
3- 4 – $12,000
5-8 -$8,000
9-16 -$5,000
17-32 – $3,500
33-64- $2,000
65-96 – $1000 (loser of 2nd round in the loser’s bracket of Stage 2)
Total – $300,000

The 2012 WPA World 9-ball Championship
Sponsored by – Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC)
Co-sponsored by – Simonis (cloth)
Organized by – Qatar Billiards & Snooker Federation (QBSF)
Sanctioned by – World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) & Asian Pocket
Billiard Union (APBU)

Official hotel; The Wyndam Grand Regency

EQUIPMENT:
Diamond Tables
Simonis 860 Cloth, Electric Blue Color.
Aramith Super Pro TV Ball

Day 4 Results
All Matches are Losers Side of the Groups. 
Winner move on to the final 64. The losers are out of the tournament

Group 1
Al Awadi Bader(KUW) 9 – 2 Mohamad Ali Berjaoui(LIB)
Huidji See(NED) 9 – 8 Vincente Loyme(PHI)

Group 2
Mika Immonen(FIN) 9 – 8 Ali Pordel(IRI)
Hsu Kai Lun(TPE) 9 – 7 Ramil Gallego(PHI)

Group 3
Nikolaos Malaj(ALB) 9 – 6 Chris Melling(GBR)
Jundel Mazon(PHI) 9 – Shane Van Boening(USA)

Group 4
Chao Fong Pang(TPE) 9 – 4 Majid Waleed(UAE)
Le He Wen(CHN) 9 – 1 Roman Hybler(CZE)

Group 5
Do The Kein(VIE) 9 – 5 Fu Jianbo(CHN)
Takashi Uraoka(JPN) 9 – 7 Karlo Dalmatin(CRO)

Group 6
Naoyuki Ohi(JPN) 9 – 8 Niels Feijen(NED)
Al Mutairi, Khaled GH(KUW) 9 – 8 Dimitri Jungo(SUI)

Group 7
Yang Ching Shun(TPE) 9 – 4 Jalal Yousef(VEN)
Ryu Seung Woo(KOR) 9 – 5 Albin Ouschan(AUT)

Group 8
Omar AlShaheen(KUW) 9 – 7 Lee Chen Man(HKG)
Serge Das (BEL) 9 – 6 Hayato Hijikata(JPN)

Group 9
Lo Li Wen(JPN) 9 – 2 Bozidar Primic(CRO)
Mateusz Sniegocki(POL)  Abdulla Al Yousef(KUW)

Group 10
Yukio Akagariyama(JPN) 9 – 7 Takhti Zarekani(IRI)
Dominic Jentsch(GER) 9 – 5 Mohammed Saed Saed(QAT)

Group 11
Bruno Muratore(ITA) 9 – 5 Abdul Majed BAshar Hussain(QAT)
Elvis Calasang(PHI) 9 – 7 Al Amar Abdul Rahman(KSA)

Group 12
Mario He(AUT) 9 –  Ali Alobaidy(QAT)
Liu Haitao(CHN) 9 – Imran Majid(GBR)

Group 13
Andrea Klasovic(SRB) 9 – 3 Hunter Lombardo(USA)
Toh Lian Han(SIN) 9 – 8 Denis Grabe(EST)

Group 14
Toru Kuribayashi(JPN) 9 – 4 Francisco Diaz Pizarro(ESP)
Marlon Caneda(PHI) 9 – 3 Ceri Worts(NZL)

Group 15 
Ryouji Hori(JPN) 9 – 4 Oliver Ortmann(GER)
Dennis Orcullo(PHI) 9 – 2 Raymund Faraon(PHI)

Group 16
Joven Alba(PHI) 9 – 5 Afou Nayf Abdel(JOR)
Israel Rota(PHI) 9 – 7 David Anderson(RSA)

The Drama of 9-Ball


32 PLAYERS ADVANCE TO THE KNOCKOUT STAGE AS CLIFFHANGERS ABOUND AT THE WORLD 9-BALL CHAMPIONSHIP IN QATAR

(Doha, Qatar)–There was something special in the air throughout the day today at the Al Sadd Sports Club in Doha, and it wasn’t the crisp cool air conditioning offering comfort to fans and players alike.

It was an intangible, what we used to call on the east coast of the USA, “that certain something,” an unknowable, hard to describe feeling, when you know  something is good, but you can’t quite figure out why. You just know it’s good, and it’s only going to get better. You just know it.

Perhaps it was the sheer volume of high quality and tight matches that took place, the incredible talent on display that is as good as has ever been seen in pool, all combined with the fact that on Day 3 of the 2012 World 9-balll Championship, the gravity of the moment, of the stakes involved, started to dawn on players and fans alike.

This part of the tournament is all about getting through to the next round. 32 players did just that today as they cashed in their chips to the next stage, the single elimination knockout round of 64 which will begin on Wednesday June 27.  Some had it easy, others not so much. But all who made it breathed a massive sigh of relief. Just get through, wipe the slate clean, and start fresh on Wednesday.

“It’s like a battle field out there,” said a England’s Darren Appleton, clearly relieved after beating Saudi Arabia’s  Abdul Rahman Al Amar and advancing. “You just want to get through. There’s a lot of great, great, great players in this event. In years past you kind of knew who would get through. But not anymore. There’s a lot of surprises, but no shocks. I’m just happy. These tournaments are getting tougher and tougher.”

With 17 Filipinos in the field of 128 players, including the legendary Efren Reyes, and Francisco Bustamante, the venue is never short of large and vocal crowds of Filipino overseas workers and this certainly spices up the already pressure filled atmosphere. They came out in force today as the winners of each group faced off for a quick chance out of the danger zone of the group stage and into the final 64, including Reyes who played in the first session.

Reyes did his part as he easily defeated Kuwait’s Badr Al Awadi 9-2 to advance to the next round.  Afterward Reyes offered his patented line for why he won.

“I get lucky,” he said with his toothless grin. “He’s a good player but the break is against him, he never get a shot. Me I always get a shot after the break.”

Several players clearly stepped up their game early on. Malta’s popular Tony Drago sprinted past the Philippines Ramil Gallego, 9-6. Afterward, pool’s version of Speed Racer said he’s primed and ready to wreak havoc in the coming days and welcomes the pressure that is sure to come.

“I’m playing fantastic,” Drago said. “I’m enjoying myself. I like coming to the Middle East. The people are fantastic. I know pressure, and I know how to handle pressure. So I’m ready.”

2003 World 9-ball Champion Thorsten Hohmann put in a solid performance, as did France’s Vincent Faquet, who fought back from 4-2 down to beat the Philippines very tough Jundel Mazon, 9 – 5. Scotland’s Jason Shaw, a former English 8-ball World Champion, smothered China’s Fu Jian Bo, 9-5.

A great story has developed out of New Zealand as 24 year old Matthew Edwards continued his fine run in this year’s tournament, advancing to the knockout stage with an impressive 9-5 win over Malaj Nikolaos of Albania. Edwards, who’s playing in his first world championship,  first took down the USA’s Shane Van Boening.  He now becomes the first ever Kiwi to make it this far in a world championship.

“Nobody’s an easy player,” Edwards said. “This whole tournament is everything I thought it would be. There’s a lot of excitement here.”

As the day wore on the matches just got better, tighter and more pressure packed. World 8-ball Champion Chang Jung Lin came back from 8-6 down to Naouki Ohi of Japan, and won 9-8. 2007 World 9-ball Champion Daryl Peach of England was 5-0 down to Croatian Bozo Primic but clawed back to win a thriller, 9-8. Taiwan’s Chang Yu Lung and Austria’s Albin Ouschan, the brother of women’s star Jasmine Ouschan, went all the way with Chang prevailing 9-8. The USA’s Hunter Lombardo had the Philippines Ronnie Alcano on the ropes, but lost a cliff hanger 9-8.

One of the more entertaining matches happened between Greece’s Nick Ekonomopoulos and China’s Liu Haitao, two very solid rising talents.  Ekonomopoulos was down 7-2 but ended up winning 9-8. The confident Greek, who’s playing in his first world championship, looks to be an interesting dark horse in this event. He recently won the Austrian Open on the Euro Tour. He was so confident in his abilities that he flew to Qatar without an entry into the tournament and entered the brutally tough qualifiers, where he won one event and made it into the main draw.  With the pressure way too intense late his match with Liu, he looked positively deadly.

Also advancing today were Hall of Famer Ralf Souquet  of Germany, the Netherland’s Nick Van den Berg, England’s Karl Boyes, Filipinos Francisco Bustamante, Lee Van Corteza, Carlo Biado and Antonio G.bica, Taiwan’s Fu Che Wei, and Russian Konstantin Stepanov, who beat defending champion Yukio Akagariyama.

The surprise of the evening was Dennis Orcullo going down to Hong Kong’s Andrew Kong, 9-5. Kong advances while Orcullo has to come back Tuesday for one last try.

That’ll happen on Tuesday, Judgement Day, when all matches will be do-or-die.  As the action heats up inside the Al Sadd Sports Club, the nerves will surely start to fray, easy pots will become testers, and dreams will be made and shattered on the smallest turn of the balls.

The WPA will be providing full up to the minute coverage of the 2012 World 9-ball Championship via its website at www.wpapool.com.   There you can follow the action through our live scoring platform, articles with insights and analysis, and updated brackets.  Fans can also get updates via the WPA Twitter page, @poolwpa.com.

Fans can also access live scoring through the official website of the Qatar Billiards and Snooker Federation at: http://www.qbsf.net/en/live_score.php.

*The World Pool And Billiard Association(WPA) is the international governing of the sport of pocket billiards.   

Day 3 Results
All Matches Winners Side of the Brackets
Winner advances to the round of 64, loser goes to the losers side of the bracket for one last chance

Group 1
Efren Reyes(PHI) 9 – 2 Bader Al Awadi(KUW)
John Morra(CAN) 9 – 8 Joyme Vicente(PHI)

Group 2
Tony Drago(MLT) 9 – 6 Ramil Gallego(PHI)
Thorsten Hohmann(GER) 9 – 4 Ali Pordel(IRI)

Group 3
Vincent Faquet(FRA) 9 -5 Jundel Mazon(PHI)
Matthew Edwards(NZL) 9 – 4 Malaj Nikolaos(ALB)

Group  4
Carlo Biado(PHI) 9 – 3 Roman Hybler(CZE)
Thomas Engert(GER) 9 – 5 Chao Fong Pang

Group  5
Jason Shaw(GBR) 9 – 5 Fu Jianbo(CHN)
Fu Chei Wei(TPE) 9 – 3 Karlo Dalmatin(CRO)

Group 6
Aki Heiskanen(FIN) 9 – 3 Al Mutairi, Khaled GH(KUW)
Chang Jun Lin(TPE) 9 – 8 Naouki Ohi(JPN)

Group 7
Chang Yu Lung(TPE) 9 – 8 Albin Ouschan(AUT)
Karl Boyes(GBR) 9 –3 Yang Ching Shun(TPE)

Group 8
Manuel Gama(POR) 9 – 6 Hayato Hijikata(JPN)
Ko Pin Yi(TPE)9 – 3 Omar Al Shahen(KUW)

Group 9
Daryl Peach(GBR) 9 – 8 Bozo Primic(CRO)
Francisco Bustamante(PHI) 9 – 4 Abdullah Al Yousef

Group 10
 Roberto Gomez(PHI) 9 – 1 Mohammad Saeed(QAT)
Konstantin Stepanov(RUS) 9 – 7 Yukio Akagariyama(JPN)

Group 11
Darren Appleton(GBR) 9 – 2 Abdul Rahman Al Amar(KSA)
Han Hao Xiang(CHN) 9 -1 Bashar Hussain(QAT)

Group 12
Jason Klatt(CAN) 9 – 1 Ali Obaidli(QAT)
Nick Ekonomopoulos(GRE) 9 – 8 Liu Haitao(CHN)

Group 13
Ronnie Alcano(PHI) 9 – 8 Hunter Lombardo(USA)
Antonio Gabica(PHI) 9 – 7 Denis Grabe(EST)

Group 14
Lee Van Corteza(PHI) 9 – 5 Marlon Caneda(PHI)
Majed Alazmi(KUW) 9 – 6 Torhu Koribayashi(JPN)

Group 15
Jonny Martinez(VEN) 9 -8 Oliver Ortmann(GER)   
Andrew Kong(HKG) 9 – 5 Dennis Orcullo(PHI)

Group 16
Ralf Souquet(GER) 9 – 1Nayf Abdel Afou(JOR)
Nick Van den Berg(NED) 9 – 6 David Anderson(RSA)