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IT'S A RACE TO THE FINISH LINE

A Pro9 - Europe's No.1 Pool Player Resource Article

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Date: Thursday, June 28 2012 @ 07:36:29 UTC
Topic: 9 Ball



2012 WPA World 9-Ball Championships
Qatar Billiards & Snooker Federation
Al Sadd Sports Club
Al Sadd Street
Sport Roundabout
Doha
Qatar
www.qbsf.net - group brackets - livescore
www.olympic.qa
www.wpa-pool.com
www.al-saddclub.com
www.alkass.net/live_plus.aspx - Live video streaming - NOW!

18 - 29 June 2012



AFTER CUTTING THE FIELD IN HALF, IMMONEN AND 31 OTHERS GEAR UP FOR A FRANTIC RIDE TO THE WIRE AT THE WORLD 9-BALL CHAMPIONSHIP

In a long day of hard core pool and tense drama, the grind that is the toughest pool competition in the world kicked into high gear on Wednesday as the unforgiving single elimination knockout rounds commenced at the 2012 World 9-ball Championship .

The day started with 64 players eyeing the ultimate prize of world supremacy in 9-ball, and ended with 32 of them happy and relieved to play another day, and the other 32 seriously considering a long lonely walk into the Qatari desert.

Some of the scripts played out as expected, while others offered fans twists and turns right up to the last ball.

With 13 players in the final 64, the Philippines had the most to lose and indeed that’s exactly what happened as 8 Pinoys, including 2010 World 9-ball Champion Francisco Bustamante and 2006 champion Ronnie Alcano, went down to defeat. But Pinoy pool fanatics can take heart; the legend Efren Reyes is still kicking, as is the country’s current top player, Dennis Orcullo.

Continuing with a macro view of the championship landscape, Germany put in an all around solid performance today, as did the Chinese. But out of all the countries, the Taiwanese are looking like the team to beat this year.

Based upon some of the upstart performances in the group stages, the morning session with 8 tables in action offered good possibilities for a few upsets, but instead it became a confirmation of that age old phrase, ‘the cream rises to the top.’

Germany’s Ralf Souquet, Taiwan’s Fu Che We and the Netherland’s Nick van den Berg all beat back pretenders to the crown. As did the Philippines’ Orcullo, who took a measure of revenge against Hong Kong’s Andrew Kong, who had beaten the Filipino in the group stages.

“The pressure is very big here,” Orcullo admitted after his match. “You just have to deal with it because it’s only going to get bigger.”

Photos by Michael Neumann

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The second session presented the fans with a terrific match as multi world champion Mika Immonen faced the Maltese speedster, Tony Drago, in a match played on the TV table. The two stars engaged in a back and forth slugfest that neither one could put away. Drago, who plays five shots while others in the arena play just one, sprinted to a 10-8 lead in the race to 11, alternate break match and seemed to have the win in hand when he tied Immonen up in a pickle.

But Immonen, always massively hungry for a world title, escaped with his second incredible late match shot in two days, and ended up catching Drago. A break and run sent the Finn into the final 32 while Drago headed for the door.

“At 10-9 I snookered him behind the 3,” Drago said, “but he made that miracle escape. When that happens you think that someone up there doesn’t want me to win.”

“I’m lucky to be here,” Immonen said. “He’s a phenomenal shot maker. It’s easy to get shell shocked when you play Tony. You blink your eyes and you’re out.”

As expected the Philippines Reyes drew a decent crowd of Filipino overseas workers to the arena. Reyes didn’t look particularly impressive but his opponent, Toh Lian Han of Singapore, wasn’t up to the task on the TV table. Reyes won 11- 4.

“I played terrible,” Reyes said. “He miss a lot of easy shots. I can’t win if I play like that.”

Philippine fans hung around to cheer on Alcano. But Alcano looked a shell of his self from last year and lost to his steadier countryman Jundel Mazon, 11-9.


The Kuwaitis continued their Cinderella story at this year’s championship with a seriously awesome performance from 19 year old Omar Al Shaheen. Al Shaheen was a heavy underdog against Taiwan’s Chung Yu Lu but the pride of Kuwait held his own and led for much of the match. But he showed his real mettle when Chung caught him at 7-7, then moved to a 10-8 lead and what looked like a sure win for the Taiwanese. Al Shaheen battled back, and to the delight of the crowd, tied the match at 10. A cool break and run in the last rack put the youngster in the final 32.

“I was just lucky,” the humble Al Shaheen said. “Every time I break, I get 2 balls down and an open table.”

Kuwait is sure to have one player in the final 16 as Al Shaheen will now play Khaled Al Mutairi in the round of 32.

As the day wore on it was clear the Taiwanese are going to be very difficult to take down. Chang Jun Lin, fresh off a confidence boosting win at the World 8-ball Championship in Fujairah, crushed the Philippines very capable Joven Alba, 11-2. Ko Pin Yi, who could have the best break shot in pool, manhandled the Netherland’s Huidji See, 11-6. Even the veterans got into the act. Yang Ching Shun, who’s making a comeback to competitive pool, streaked past Vincent Faquet. And two time World 9-ball Champion Fong Pang Chao took down Bustamante, 9-6. Bustamante complained that Chao sharked him twice during the match.

There’s another phenomenal Taiwanese player who showed he could go all the way, but he doesn’t player under the Taiwanese banner. Lo Li Wen is Taiwanese but he lives in Japan with his Japanese wife and he plays under the Japanese flag.

Lo and 2007 9-ball champion Daryl Peach of England engaged in a veritable slugfest of high quality pool, with Lo prevailing, 11-9. It was one of those matches where you feel bad that somebody had to lose and get the boot so early in the knockout stages.

“I missed one ball all game,” a stunned Peach said afterward. “That was as tough a draw as you could get. I can’t believe it.”

Defending champion Yukio Akagariyama of Japan put in a high quality outing as well, with a hard fought 11 – 9 comeback win over Thomas Engert of Germany. His buddy Toru Kuribayashi wasn’t so fortunate as he fell 11- 7 to one of the tournament's feel good stories, Matthew Edwards of New Zealand. No Kiwi has ever made it this far in a World 9-ball Championship and Edwards' run is attracting real media and fan attention down under and helping to lift the game of 9-ball to new levels.

With the round of 64 history, the World 9-ball Championship really ramps up on Thursday as the field will be whittled down to just four players. The semi-finals and final will take place on June 29th, with the final being a race to 13.




Click the image to view the larger photo (courtesy of Thorsten Hohmann)



2012 WPA WORLD 9-BALL CHAMPIONSHIPS
DOHA - QATAR
THE LAST 64 DRAW
Ralf Souquet
11 : 4
Nikolaos Malaj
Jonny Martinez
11 : 8
Takashi Uraoka
Fu Che Wei
11 : 4
Andrea Klasovic
Bruno Muratore
11 : 6
Jayson Shaw
Hsu Kai Lun
11 : 5
Aki Heiskanen
Dennis Orcollo
11 : 8
Andrew Kong
Nick van den Berg
11 : 6
Marlon Caneda
Han Hao Xiang
11 : 8
Israel Rota
Lee Van Corteza
11 : 4
Serge Das
Mika Immonen
11 : 10
Tony Drago
Antonio Gabica
11 : 7
Mario He
Yang Ching Shun
11 : 4
Vincent Facquet
Khaled Al Mutairi
11 : 8
Majed Alazmi
Omar Al Shahen
11 : 10
Chang Yu Lun
John Morra
11 : 7
Elvis Calasang
Lee He Wen
11 : 9
Jason Klatt
Naoyuki Ohi
11 : 10
Carlo Biado
Chang Jun Lin
11 : 2
Joven Alba
Thorsten Hohmann
11 : 4
Badr Al Awadi
Yukio Akagariyama
11 : 9
Thomas Engert
Karl Boyes
11 : 9
Do The Kien
Chao Fong Pang
11 : 6
Francisco Bustamante
Dominic Jentsch
11 : 6
Manuel Gama
Efren Reyes
11 : 6
Toh Lian Han
Liu Haitao
11 : 4
Roberto Gomez
Nick Ekonomopoulos
11 : 5
Ryu Seung Woo
Matthew Edwards
11 : 8
Tohru Kuribayashi
Darren Appleton
11 : 6
Mateusz Sniegocki
Konstantin Stepanov
11 : 6
Ryoji Hori
Jundel Mazon
11 : 9
Ronnie Alcano
Lo Li Wen
11 : 9
Daryl Peach
Ko Pin Yi
11 : 6
Huidji See


2012 WPA WORLD 9-BALL CHAMPIONSHIPS
DOHA - QATAR
THE LAST 32
Ralf Souquet
11 : 7
Jonny Martinez
Bruno Muratore
11 : 9
Fu Che Wei
Dennis Orcollo
11 : 8
Hsu Kai Lun
Nick van den Berg
11 : 9
Han Hao Xiang
Mika Immonen
11 : 5
Lee Van Corteza
Antonio Gabica
11 : 9
Yang Ching Shun
Omar Al Shahen
11 : 6
Khaled Al Mutairi
Lee He Wen
11 : 8
John Morra
Naoyuki Ohi
11 : 3
Chang Jung Lin
Thorsten Hohmann
11 : 9
Yukio Akagariyama
Karl Boyes
11 : 8
Chao Fong Pang
Dominic Jentsch
11 : 10
Efren Reyes
Nick Ekonomopoulos
11 : 8
Liu Haitao
Darren Appleton
11 : 10
Matthew Edwards
Jundel Mazon
11 : 3
Konstantin Stepanov
Ko Pin Yi
11 : 10
Lo Li Wen


2012 WPA WORLD 9-BALL CHAMPIONSHIPS
DOHA - QATAR
THE LAST 16
Ralf Souquet
11 : 4
Bruno Muratore
Nick van den Berg
11 : 6
Dennis Orcollo
Antonio Gabica
11 : 9
Mika Immonen
Lee He Wen
11 : 9
Omar Al Shahen
Naoyuki Ohi
11 : 9
Thorsten Hohmann
Karl Boyes
11 : 10
Dominik Jentsch
Darren Appleton
11 : 8
Nick Ekonomopoulos
Ko Pin Yi
11 : 8
Jundel Mazon


2012 WPA WORLD 9-BALL CHAMPIONSHIPS
DOHA - QATAR
THE QUARTER-FINALS
Ralf Souquet
11 : 9
Nick van den Berg
Lee He Wen
11 : 10
Antonio Gabica
Naoyuki Ohi
11 : 9
Karl Boyes
Darren Appleton
11 : 9
Ko Pin Yi


2012 WPA WORLD 9-BALL CHAMPIONSHIPS
DOHA - QATAR
THE SEMI-FINALS
Ralf Souquet
-vs-
Lee He Wen
Naoyuki Ohi
-vs-
Darren Appleton


2012 WPA WORLD 9-BALL CHAMPIONSHIPS
DOHA - QATAR
THE FINAL
---
-vs-
---




2012 WPA WORLD 9-BALL CHAMPIONSHIPS
DOHA - QATAR
THE PRIZE FUND
1st
$ 40,000
2nd
$ 20,000
3rd ~ 4th
$ 12,000
5th ~ 8th
$ 8,000
9th ~ 16th
$ 5,000
17th ~ 32nd
$ 3,000
33rd ~ 64th
$ 2,000
65th ~ 96th
$ 1,000
97th ~ 128th
$ 0
TOTAL PRIZE FUND = US $300,000




WPA WORLD 9-BALL CHAMPIONSHIPS
THE WINNER'S LIST
1990 - 2011
1990
Earl Strickland
USA
1991
Earl Strickland
USA
1992
Johnny Archer
USA
1993
Fong-Pang Chao
TPE
1994
Takeshi Okumura
JPN
1995
Oliver Ortmann
GER
1996
Ralf Souquet
GER
1997
Johnny Archer
USA
1998
Kunihiko Takahashi
JPN
1999
Nick Varner
USA
1999
Efren Reyes
PHI
2000
Fong-Pang Chao
TPE
2001
Mika Immonen
FIN
2002
Earl Strickland
USA
2003
Thorsten Hohmann
GER
2004
Alex Pagulayan
CAN
2005
Chia-Ching Wu
TPE
2006
Ronnie Alcano
PHI
2007
Daryl Peach
GBR
2008
*Not held
---
2009
*Not held
---
2010
Francisco Bustamante
PHI
2011
Yukio Akakariyama
JPN














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