Liu Takes Amway Title for Taiwan
Liu remained placid, even after winning a momentous title for her country.
This time, the British perennial champ took a brutal 11-2 loss . She did not score a point until a seventh-game run out brought the score to 6-1, and she failed to pick up momentum from there, scoring only once more. Fisher didn’t capitalize on several of Liu’s mistakes, including a 7-ball bank that left the ball sitting on the lip of the pocket.
Liu took the final game with a tricky run-out that included jumping out of a safety on the 1 and recovering from poor position on the 4. As icing on the cake, she sank the 5 and 7 in one shot before running what was left of the rack. She registered little emotion as she won the title, but did say that this was the first time that she had beaten Fisher in Taiwan.
Fisher took home $10,000 for second place, Monica Webb took $8,000 for third, Karen Corr took $7,000 for fourth, and Jeanette Lee and Korean Ga-Young Kim tied for fifth and $5,000 each.
Fisher Breaks Corr’s Winning Streak, and Her Own Losing Streak
Allison Fisher defeated first-seed Karen Corr, 7-1, to win the Women’s Professional Billiard Association Cuetec Cues Players Championship. This is Fisher’s first classic tour win since the WPBA Nationals in December 2000; her victory snapped Corr’s winning streak of six consecutive WPBA Classic Tour titles.
The Cuetec Cues Players Championship was held March 15-17, at the Valley Forge Convention Center in King of Prussia, Pa. It was the first stop on the WPBA 2002 Classic Tour. Upcoming events on the tour include the Spring Classic on April 17-21 in Alpine, Calif. and the Midwest Classic on August 21-25 in East Peoria, Ill.
Fisher’s winning check was $10,000, while Corr settled for $7,000 and second place, followed by Helena Thornfeldt with $5,000 for third.
WPA Crowns World 9-Ball Champs
The 2001 World Pool-Billiard Association World 9-ball champions are Allison Fisher (representing Great Britain) and Brian Naithani (Germany).
Fisher, ranked No. 2 by the Women’s Professional Billiard Association, earned her fourth WPA world title by defeating WPBA No. 1-ranked Karen Corr (also representing Great Britain) 11-8 in the final held in Amagasaki City, Japan. Only one other player (Robin Dodson, with the 1990 and 1991 titles) owns multiple WPA women’s 9-ball titles. Fisher finished third last year while Corr placed second. The 2000 titlist, Julie Kelly, finished 17th, losing first to Anita Kuczma of Canada, 11-5, and then to Kyoke Sone of Japan, 11-4.
Naithani, who was the 2000 runner-up in the juniors’ contest, defeated Jung-Lin Chang of Taipei, 11-5, in the final. The defending champion, Dmitri Jungo, aged out of competition.
Also at the tournament, the WPA elected Ian Anderson of Sydney, Australia to a four-year term as its president.
Fisher crowned “Champion of Champions”
Allison Fisher captured her biggest victory of the year by beating Karen Corr in sudden death to claim the winner-takes-all International Tournament of Champions at Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Conn., on Nov. 8. The victory netted Fisher, the No. 2-ranked player on the Women’s Professional Billiard Association’s Classic Tour, $25,000 for first place in the four-play star-studded event to be televised on ESPN.
Fisher, who handed over the WPBA’s top ranking to a red-hot Corr in June, has lost to Corr in the last three Classic Tour stops. At the Tournament of Champions, though, Fisher controlled the deciding sudden-death tiebreaker game to secure the win. “I feel like I just won an Olympic Gold Medal,” said Fisher, who topped Helena Thornfeldt in the semifinals. “One shot missed and you can lose $25,000! Your emotions are off the chart during the entire tournament.”
Comeback Queen
For the third consecutive Classic Tour event, Karen Corr rebounded from an earlier loss to win a tournament championship. This time Corr did it at the Women’s Professional Billiard Association Midwest Classic at Palace Billiards in Villa Park, Ill., Oct. 11-14, recovering from a loss to Fisher in the winner’s-bracket finale to oust Fisher in the final, 7-4.
Corr, who has swept all five 2001 Classic Tour events this season excluding the Billiard Congress of America 9-Ball Championships, extended her points lead in the WPBA rankings over Fisher with the victory. The $7,500 payday also pushed Corr’s 2001 WPBA Classic Tour earnings to $45,000, surpassing last year’s total of $40,500, with the 2001 WPBA National Championships still left to play this season. Fisher collected $5,500 for second, while Gerda Hofstatter earned $4,500 for third — her best finish since winning the BCA 9-Ball Championship in May 2000.
Comfortable at the Top
Top-ranked Karen Corr widened her points lead over No. 2 Allison Fisher, winning by the narrowest of margins at Sandia Casino on Sept. 9. Corr’s 7-6 win over Fisher in the final of the Classic Tour’s fourth stop of the season netted Corr $7,500, and doubled her lead over Fisher in the rankings to an 80-point advantage.
The former snooker stars were even at 6-6 heading into the final game, where Corr pulled out the win to give her victories in all four Classic Tour stops this season. Only Jeanette Lee’s victory at the Billiard Congress of America 9-Ball Championships has kept Corr from a perfect 2001 season thus far.
Lee, who recently captured the Gold Medal for the United States in the women’s 9-ball division of the World Games in Akita, Japan, finished in third place. Ewa Laurance took fourth.
Going For Gold
American Jeanette Lee and Taipei’s Ching-Shun Yang captured the 9-ball divisions of the 6th World Games in Akita, Japan, Aug. 16-26. Lee took home the Gold Medal after beating Ireland’s Karen Corr, 9-3. Lee’s finish gave the United States a second-best 15 total Gold Medals during the Games, and a combined 31 medals to place third overall behind leader Russia (44) and second-place Germany (35) in the medal count.
Yang knocked off Germany’s Ralf Souquet, 11-8, in the final to claim the Gold Medal. Despite Souquet’s defeat, Germany’s medal count was boosted when Souquet’s countrymate Thomas Engert topped American Jon Kucharo to claim the bronze medal.
Belgium’s Bjoern Haneveer edged Filipino Marlon Manalo, 4-3, to take the snooker Gold Medal, while Spain’s Daniel Sanchez upset Dick Jaspers, 40-30, to earn the Gold in carom.
Mexico’s Ismaez Paez, who suffered a heart attack before one of his matches early in the 9-ball tournament, underwent heart surgery and is currently recovering.
Corr eclipses Fisher to take No. 1 ranking
Ireland’s Karen Corr captured her 2001 Classic Tour-best third title of the season by defeating Allison Fisher, 7-3, in the final of the Women’s Professional Billiard Association’s Cuetec Cues Carolina Classic at the Charlotte Marriott City Center, June 14-17. The victory vaulted Corr into the No. 1 spot in the rankings, unseating Fisher, who held the WPBA’s top position since Sept. 1996.
Corr’s victory was her sixth WPBA crown since joining the tour in 1999. Five of those wins have come in Corr’s last nine Classic Tour stops, including back-to-back titles at the 2001 Cuetec Cues Players Championship in March and the Spring Classic in April. With the $7,500 first-place prize, Corr’s earnings total reached a Classic Tour-leading $30,000 for the 2001 season.
Lee and Deuel Victorious in Vegas
Jeanette Lee ended Karen Corr’s two-tourney win streak when she came from the one-loss side to hand Corr her only loss of the tournament, 7-5, at the Billiard Congress of America Pro 9-Ball open. Lee also ended a drought of her own, taking her first tournament top prize since prior to her 2000 back and shoulder surgery.
On the men’s side, Cory Deuel came through the left side and won 12 consecutive matches to take the top prize, defeating Jose Parica, 7-5, with a jaunty 8-9 combo in the final.
Lee and Deuel each won $15,000.
Corr defends Valley Forge
Karen Corr kicked off the 2001 Women’s Professional Billiard Association’s Classic Tour by capturing its first stop at the Cuetec Players Championship, in Valley Forge, Pa., March 23-25. Corr went undefeated to collect $6,500 during the three-day tournament, which will be aired on ESPN beginning in May.
Corr, the WPBA’s second-ranked player, rallied from a 4-1 deficit against Jennifer Chen in the final match with six consecutive games to claim her second consecutive Players Championship title. “This event is important for me because I live just down the road [in Feasterville, Pa.],” said Corr. “There’s a lot of local support for me here, and I have a lot of friends who wanted to see me do well.”