Corr Defends Title in Florida
Karen Corr was beaming upon winning her second consecutive Cuetec Cues Florida Classic, the fourth stop on the 2006 Women’s Professional Billiards Classic Tour held at the Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Fla. She defeated Allison Fisher in the final by a score of 7-4.
Corr came through the bracket unscathed, with wins over Liz Ford, 9-3, Dawn Hopkins, 9-2, Tracie Hines, 9-5, and Sarah Ellerby, 9-2, to land in the top 16. At that point, the format switched to single elimination and the players drew an opponent at random. Corr was matched with Gerda Hoftstatter, who she beat 9-4, to land in the semifinal against Jeanette Lee, while Fisher faced Monica Webb after a solid win over Tiffany Nelson, 9-4.
In the match against Lee, Corr pulled ahead 6-2, but Lee’s focus would not falter. She came back, 6-5, at which point Corr showed concern, but swiped back control for the 7-5 win.
In the other semifinal match, Webb was visibly frustrated by some bad rolls and soon fell behind in the match. She would have to settle for tied-for-third place, as Fisher won it, 7-3, to stage the ever-familiar face-off of the No. 1 and No. 2-ranked WPBA players.
As always, it was an intense match and both players often found themselves playing safe, but Corr came out on top, 7-4.
Thirty-two Remain in the World 14.1 Straight Pool Championship
The World 14.1 Straight Pool Championship got underway May 30 at the Hilton in East Brunswick, N.J., the first competition of its kind in over 15 years.
The 64-player field included some of pool’s elite players, including Mika Immonen, Nick Varner, Mike Sigel, Allen Hopkins, and Oliver Ortmann. Top women pros Jeanette Lee, Jasmin Ouschan and Megan Minnerich were also invited to play.
The event kicked off with an opening ceremony in which the players were divided into eight groups of eight players. The first round was a round-robin format, with only the top 32 advancing to round two, which is currently underway, employing a double-elimination format.
After round one, Max Eberle, Go Takami and Mike Sigel remained undefeated. Lee, losing only to Sigel, had a 6-1 record going into round two. Big names eliminated early include Johnny Archer, Larry Schwartz, Luc Salvas, Tony Robles, Jimmy Mataya, Varner and Minerich.
Players recording high runs thus far include: Mike Sigel – 125, Ralf Souquet – 99, John Schmidt – 91, Danny Harriman – 83 and Thorsten Hohman – 71.
Up-And-Comers Make Their Mark in Las Vegas
Day two of the Enjoypool.com 9-Ball Championship was full of excitement at the Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nev.
In what many fans are calling the best match they’ve ever witnessed, Efren “The Magician” Reyes would not succumb to a 10-1 deficit to Allen Hopkins, who was playing near flawless pool. In the case match, Hopkins jarred the 8-ball, allowing Reyes back to the table. This would prove a fatal mistake, as Reyes strung together a 10-game comeback to win the match 11-10.
Also on the men’s side, Taipei’s Po Cheng Kuo knocked crowd favorite Tony Robles to the one-loss side, 11-8. Kuo will next face Johnny Archer who scored an 11-0 win over John Schmidt on Monday.
The women’s side had its share of excitement as well, as Arizona’s Angel Paglia upset Karen Corr, ranked second in the Women’s Professional Billiard Association, with a 9-7 win.
Another non-WPBA player, Jasmin Ouschan, scored a hill-hill win over former World Champion Ga-Young Kim. Ouschan went on to score a 9-2 win over Alice Rim later on Monday. Chinese up-and-comer Xiao-Ting Pan continued to make waves with her impressive play, scoring a 9-6 win over Jeanette Lee.
Four Finalists Remain In the San Diego Classic
A face-off of the Fishers: Allison and Kelly, will take place today, April 23, at 1 p.m. at the San Diego Classic, the third 2006 stop on the Women’s Pro Billiard Tour currently being played out at Viejas Casino in Alpine, Calif.
Kelly dismissed Jeanette Lee and Allison defeated Dawn Hopkins to reach the semifinal match. Kelly is the returning champion of this event, and will do her best to defend the title.
Also among the undefeated, Karen Corr and Sarah Ellerby will face off at 1 p.m. as well. For ongoing results and event highlights, visit www.wpba.com
The Heat Is On In San Diego
Ready, set, rack! WPBA President Kim White of Texas and Val Finnie of Scotland rack in the first round.
Defending champion Kelly Fisher won her first match over California’s Darlene Stinson, 9-1, and looks well poised to make her way to the finals. Local favorite Tina Pawlowski suffered her first loss at the hand’s of Virginia’s Sueyen Rhee, but will return today to compete against Wisconsin’s Jeri Engh.
First round upsets included #51-ranked Lisa D’Atri over Colorado’s #24-ranked Laura Smith; #42-ranked semi-pro Leslie Anne Rogers of Texas over #26-ranked pro Melissa Little; newcomer Julia Gabriel over #31-ranked Stacy Hurst of Southern California; and the Florida Flash, #43-ranked Ellen Van Buren over #19-ranked Romana Dokovic.
Big matches in the winner’s bracket will take place tonight, including Jeanette Lee vs. Kelly Fisher and Kim Shaw vs. Dawn Hopkins, who dismissed both Tiffany Nelson, 9-5, and Kim White, 9-7, in preliminary rounds.
Stay tuned for more coverage here at HeadString, or follow updated tournament brackets and highlights at www.wpba.com.
Ga-Young Kim Takes Second World Championship in Taipei
The world has a new women’s 9-ball champion in Ga-Young Kim of Korea. It’s a title she’s had before, in 2004, and one that she stole away from former 2002 champion Shin-Mei Liu, in the final match of the 2006 Women’s World 9-Ball Championship that took place in Taipei, Taiwan. The four-day tournament culminated March 5.
Kim was the favorite against American Jeannie Seaver in the quarter final. Seaver’s break was plagued by scratches and Kim was victorious, 7-5.
Her next match was a defensive battle against Japan’s Akimi Kajitani. With Kim on the hill, 8-6, Kajitani’s scrupulous safety placement escaped her and she left the opening Kim needed to run the remaining balls for a spot in the final, where she would meet Lui.
In the all-Asian final, points didn’t come easily and the defensive play that ruled the day continued. Kim eventually made it to the hill, 10-8, on an awe-inspiring pocket-speed shot. Within one game of the championship, Kim left Liu an opening, which she took and ran with, until she faced a poor lie on the 9. Liu went with a thin cut-shot, and the 9 ball rattled between the jaws, coming to rest just shy of the pocket. Kim easily knocked it in for the world title.
This year, the tournament yielded 64 participants from all over the world, competing for the high distinction. A few headliners were not in attendance, including Allison Fisher and Jeanette Lee.
Robert Huang, organizer of the Amway Cup was quoted in the Tapei Times as saying, “Jeanette Lee’s appearance fee rose to US$10,000 per day this year. We weren’t prepared to pay that type of money for her to play.”
World Games Quarterfinals Set
Americans Rodney Morris, Charlie Williams and Vivian Villarreal will take U.S. medal hopes into quarterfinal matches today at the World Games in Duisburg, Germany.
In men’s 9-ball, Morris, who routed Aruba’s Roland Acosta, 11-4, on Wednesday, will face Germany’s Thomas Engert, and Williams, an 11-7 winner over Japan’s Massashi Hoshi, will battle Vangelis Vettas of Greece. Vettas shocked Germany’s Ralf Souquet, 11-10, in the opening round of the 16-player single-elimination event.
Villiarreal, the lone U.S. competitor in the women’s 9-ball division, faces Korea’s Sung-Hyun Jung. Defending champion Jeanette Lee pulled out of the competition at the last minute because of impending back surgery.
Sweden’s Tom Storm, Germany’s Thorsten Hohmann, Holland’s Neils Feijen and Chinese star Pei-Wei Chang round out the final eight in the men’s division.
Top-ranked Allison Fisher, Taiwan’s Jennifer Chen, Italy’s Tiziana Cacciamani, Austria’s Jasmine Ouschan, Japan’s Yukiko Hamanishi and former WPBA regular Line Kjorsvik of Norway make up the remaining women competitors.
Men’s carom billiards and men’s snooker is also being contested at the international sports festival, which is seen as an important stepping stone for the cue sports’ Olympic Games hopes. Two high-ranking officials, Kelly Fairweather, Sports Director of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Ron Froelich, President of the International World Games Association (IWGA), were on hand at the Saalbau arena in Bottrop for the opening matches of the billiard competition.
Lee Pulls Out of World Games
Back problems and impending surgery have forced Jeanette Lee to pull out of the 2005 World Games, which begin later this month in Duisburg, Germany. Lee, currently ranked No. 4 on the Women’s Professional Billiard Association Classic Tour, suffers from scoliosis and has endured numerous surgeries over the years.
Lee is scheduled for surgery in Indianapolis on Aug. 11, and had hoped to defend her World Games title. Lee won the 9-ball championship at the 2001 World Games in Akita, Japan. It marked pool’s first appearance in the World Games, which is a quadrennial international sports festival for International Olympic Committee members whose sports are not represented in the Olympic Games.
“The pain has just gotten too severe,” said Tom George of Octagon, Lee’s agent. “She really wanted to defend her World Games title, but she just can’t play through the pain.”
According to George, Lee will also skip the WPBA’s August Classic Tour stop in Peoria, Ill., and will not likely return to action before 2006.
According to BCA executive director Steve Ducoff, given the late date of Lee’s withdrawal it is unlikely that the World Games will accept a replacement player from the U.S.
Kim takes Florida hot-seat
The TV Matches are now set for the WPBA Southeast Classic at the Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood Florida.
In the hot seat sits reigning world champion Ga Young Kim, who defeated Monica Webb 9-6 on Saturday.
Webb, will await the winner between #1 ranked Allison Fisher and #2 ranked Karen Corr in the first match on Sunday. Karen Corr defeated Jeanette Lee 9-3 on Saturday night, while Allison Fisher defeated Kelly Fisher 9-6.