The China Open
Shanghai Pudong Yuanshen Stadium
655 Yuanshen Road
Pudong New Area
Shanghai
China
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Thursday-Sunday 12-19 May 2013
Photography courtesy of ©Jin Li / TOP147.com
IT'S THE THRILL OF VICTORY AND THE AGONY OF DEFEAT
AS JUDGEMENT DAY TAKES ITS TOLL AT THE CHINA OPEN 9-BALL
There’s nothing quite like Judgement Day in the world of professional pool. Otherwise known as the Day of Reckoning, it’s when dozens upon dozens of matches take place in the group stages, all trying to determine who will still be around for the money rounds, and who will be sent packing without a dime to spend on even a soft drink. Yes, pool can be a cruel sport, but it’s also the reason those who follow it love the action. Sometimes whole careers ride on the smallest turn of the ball.
And so it was on Day 2 of the 2013 China Open in rainy Shanghai. Inside the cavernous and chilly Shanghai Pudong Yuanshen Stadium arena, the emotions were running on overdrive with the world’s best men and women pool players each desperately trying to reach the single elimination knockout stage of their respective tournaments which begin in earnest Saturday.
For the men, their field began with 64 players on day 1 and has now been whittled down to 32. For the women, the field started with 48 players and is now down to the final 16.
Few were immune to the drama today. World 9-ball Champion and world number 3 Darren Appleton thought he was cruising through to the knockout stage as he was up 7-3 in a race to 9 on the TV table against China’s 19 year up and comer Wang Can. But Can, who has spent some time playing pool in the US, turned the tables on the Brit and stormed back and grabbed an 8-7 lead. Appleton went from counting his chickens, to realizing he might have to play again later to stave off a shock elimination. But if anyone can play with their back against the wall it’s Appleton, and the 9-ball king grit his teeth and pulled out the win to advance.
Appleton was clearly ecstatic afterwards and said he was nearly overwhelmed by the magnitude of the moment.
“I was under serious pressure at the end,” he said. “It was like a semi-final at the world championship.”
Appleton has few if any weaknesses in his stellar game, but he revealed that he sometimes lets his attention lapse when he gets a big lead.
“In every major tournament I’ve won I never make it easy. I consider myself a bulldog, a fierce player. I like to scrap, sort of like a counter puncher in boxing. But when I have a big lead I tend to lose that intensity. I need that scrap. My mindset was when I was 8-7 down that I will probably dog the shot, so I might as well go for it. I need to sort out my attitude when I get a big lead.”
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While Appleton went off to breath easy, Cam had to do it all over again, this time against Dutch star Niels Feijen. Feijen had lost his first match yesterday against the former two time world champion Wu Jiaqing(formerly Wu Chia Ching) who now lives and plays out of Shenzen, China. Feijen had earlier beat his good friend and countryman Nick Van Den Berg in a do or die match, 9-7. Against Can, Feijen was up 8-5, but Can fought his way back to tie it at 8 for a one rack decider. Feijen pulled it out to advance while Can was left to wonder what might have been.
The pressure matches kept popping up around the arena. Greece’s Nick Ekonomopolous, who had earlier lost to Wu, went hill-hill with Venezuela’s Jalal Yousef, who was sure he was about to claim one of his biggest scalps. But a fluked 4-ball off a jump propelled the burly Greek into the knockout stages, while Yousef stormed out of the arena in disgust.
Germany’s Thorsten Hohmann advanced but not without some heart palpitations, as he won two straight hill-hill matches. Hohmann’s countryman, Hall of Famer Ralf Souquet, had to battle back from the losers side and barely got by China’s Liu Haitao in a do or die match, 9-8.
Photography courtesy of ©Jin Li / TOP147.com
The Philippines’ two biggest stars played drama free as defending champion Dennis Orcollo advanced to the final 32 with an airtight 9 – 7 win over Austria’s young gun Albin Ouschan 9-7. Lee Van Corteza also advanced with his second straight, a 9-6 win over Vietnam’s Do The Kien.
The Philippines’ Jeffrey De Luna will surely be trying to forget Judgement Day. De Luna flew to China without a place in the tournament and won one of the brutally tough qualifiers earlier in the week. Yesterday De Luna was millimetres away from a spot in the money rounds, only to lose on the last ball. Then today, playing against fellow Pinoy Carlo Biado, De Luna squandered his fortune again losing 9-8 after up being 8-7. Biado advance and De Luna hit the road.
The Philippines’ fourth player in the final 32 has turned quite a few heads in the last few days and is definitely worth a mention. Johann Chua, who originally hails from Bacolod City but has resided in Manila for the last ten years, is one of those gems that periodically emerges from the Philippines bustling pool halls. Chua’s aggressive, confident style and dead eyed stroke had even the partisan Chinese fans talking.
To give you an idea of his confidence, Chua, like De Luna, came to China without a spot in the tournament and won a qualifier to earn a place in the main event.
After easily beating Chinese Zeng Zhaodong 9-3 on day 1, Chua tangled with WPA world number 6 Ko Pin Yi of Taiwan. Despite the fact that Ko had much more world class experienc, Chua played and acted to Ko’s equal and, indeed, he took the match to a one rack decider before falling 9-8.
Not to be deterred, Chua then came right back and booked his spot in the final 32 with a resounding 9-1 pounding of the strong Albanian, Nick Malaj.
Afterward Chua revealed that he’s been playing pool for ten years, mostly gambling in Manila’s hard core money-game scene and entering tournaments when he can. In November, 2012 he took 3rd place in the prestigious All Japan Open. What’s great about Chua is that he plays and thinks aggressively, and clearly has the game to back it up.
“I’m an aggressive player because you have to be aggressive here, there are a lot of good players. Pool is my life. I love pool.”
Chua's biggest test to date comes right out of the gates on Saturday. He plays defending champion and fellow Pinoy Orcollo in the round of 32.
Perhaps the strongest looking contingent so far have been the players from Taiwan, who bring seven players into the final 32, all of them extremely capable. It would be surprising not to see a player from Taiwan in the semi-finals.
On the women’s side, the script went nearly to plan as most of the sport’s biggest stars have booked their spot in the final 16. Defending champion Kelly Fisher was down 4-1 to the legend Pan Xiaoting in front of a packed house on the TV table. Fisher, though, caught one of her now famous gears and ran Pan off the table, 7-4.
Pan then went to the losers side and lost to Japan’s Chichiro Kawahara to exit stage left from the building, much to the disappointment of her legions of fanatical fans. Another marquee matchup then took place on the TV table as Hall of Famer Allison Fisher went to the brink with World 10-ball champion Ga Young Kim. Fisher took the match 7 – 6, sending Kim out of the tournament.
Austria’s Jasmin Ouschan looks the goods as she easily advanced to the final 16 with two straight wins.
Both the women’s and men’s single elimination knockout stages begin on Saturday at 1:30pm Shanghai time(GMT +
. The men are playing race to 11 alternate break, while the women are playing race to 9, alternate break.The women’s final will be played on Sunday with $30,000 going to the winner. The men’s semi-finals and finals will be played on Sunday as well with $40,000 going to the winner. The total prize fund is $301,000.
Photography courtesy of ©Jin Li / TOP147.com
TWO TIME WORLD CHAMPION WU JIAQING (FORMERLY WU CHIA CHING)
MAKES SURPRISE SPLASH IN ACTION PACKED DAY 1 AT 2013 CHINA OPEN
You don’t come to the China Open with the gall thinking you are going to win this tournament. You just hope to survive long enough, say to the semi-finals, where you then have as good a chance as anyone to pull off a career defining victory.
It’s not only the stacked field comprised of most of the world’s best male and female pool players that makes the odds so long. It’s the conditions. Lightning quick tables, generous pockets, template racking which practically guarantees one, two and sometimes even three balls on the break. The result is the ultimate equalizer, a wide open shootout with the world’s best gunslingers letting it all hang out.
Welcome to the Wild West of professional pool.
“It’s really hard to say what’s good and what’s bad out here because it’s so easy to pot balls,” said 2011 China Open champion Chris Melling, after he staved off elimination on day 1 with a losers side win over American Oscar Dominguez. “The pockets are so big and the cloth is so fast. Everyone’s making two and three balls on the break. It makes the whole tournament level. I think we’re going to have a surprise winner here.”
Maybe or maybe not. Things may look topsy turvey at the beginning, but the pressure that is unique to professional pool at this level tends to favor the best and the bravest. And pool generally follows the tenets of that famous phrase, “the crème always rises to the top.”
Indeed day one of the 2013 China Open 9-ball inside the Shanghai Pudong Yuanshen Stadium arena in Shanghai produced plenty of nail biting, down- to-the-wire drama, but few shockers.
Leading the pack in the men’s event, which features 64 players divided into 8 groups of eight playing double elimination, was the defending champion Dennis Orcollo of the Philippines. Orcollo had no time to get loose as he immediately found himself in a dog fight with unknown Taiwanese Ahen Yuxuan. Yuxuan had the race to 9 match tied at 7 but succumbed to the pressure late and handed Orcollo a 9-7 win.
China’s number one player Li Hewen, who came within one rack of winning the 2012 World 9-ball Championship in Qatar, came from behind in a TV table match against Orcollo’s talented countryman, Carlo Biado, and won 9-8. Later on, Li laid down his marker when he easily beat Canada’s John Morra to advance to the knockout stage of 32. Biado, who is due to go far in a major tournament, later got his feet back under himself with a 9-1 drubbing on the losers side over China’s Zhou Long.
Taiwan looks set to put its usual dent in the proceedings as world number 1 Chang Jung Lin, along with Ko Pin Yi and Fu Chei Wei all won handily with Fu already advancing. In all, Taiwanese players won 8 out of 11 matches today.
As befitting a major tournament, there were some high quality matches straight out of the gates that could have easily been contested as finals. Former World 9-ball champion Alex Pagulayan went up against former World 8-ball champion Karl Boyes in the first round. Pagulayan took advantage of just a few mistakes by Boyes and won 9-5.
European Mosconi Cup teammates Nick Van Den Berg of Holland and Nick Ekonomopolous of Greece took their match to a one rack decider with the Nick the Greek squeaking by, 9-8.
One of the most intriguing matches of the day pitted Hollands talented Niel’s Feijen against two time former world champion Wu Jiaqing(formerly known as Wu Chia Ching.) Wu, who made pool history back in 2005 when he won the World 9-ball championship when he was just 16 years old, and then went on to win the World 8-ball championship just five months later, only recently completed a 16 month stint in the Taiwan military. And this was on the back of four straight years of personal drama and intrigue which has left the sport without one of its biggest stars. In the military Wu was forced to mop floors and clean windows for the entire time and he never once touched a cue stick. In addition, in August of last year, Wu was diagnosed with Lukemia. Fortunately doctors caught the blood disease in its very early stages and Wu says it can be controlled with medication.
Having only practiced for one month since being discharged from the military, Wu came into the match against Feijen with no expectations. Wu, however, looked like the boy wonder of old as he thumped the Dutchman 9-4.
“I’m happy with the way I played today,” Wu, who now resides in China, said afterwards through an interpreter, “but to be honest I have no confidence that I can win the tournament. “ Of course nobody who knows pool believes that.
On the women’s side, which features 48 player divided into 8 groups of six, defending champion Kelly Fisher kept the express train barrelling down the tracks with a 7-0 win over China’s Liu Jia. The match took an incredible 20 minutes to complete.
Hall of Famer Allison Fisher won her first match, then had to face old rival Ga Young Kim of Korea in a marquee affair. Kim won 7-4.
Chinese stars Fu Xiaofang, Pan Xiaoting and Chen Siming all won their opening matches.
The group stages continue on Friday in Shanghai. After completion of play on day 2, the men’s field will be down to 32 players and the women’s field will be down to 16. Both tournaments will then be single elimination knockout through to the finals on Sunday.
THE 2013 CHINA 9 BALL OPEN - MEN | |
SHANGHAI - CHINA | |
THE GROUPS | |
| GROUP A 1. ChangJung Lin (TPE) 2. So Shaw (IRA) 3. Zhu Hongming (TPE) 4. Al Shaheen Omar (KUW) 5. Han Haoxiang (CHN) 6. Zhu Xihe (CHN) 7. Xu Kailun (TPE) 8. Oi Naoyuki (JPN) | GROUP B 1. Yukio Akagariyama (JPN) 2. Nguyen Ann Tuan (VIE) 3. Salaheldeen Hussein (UAE) 4. M. Ahmad Al-Bin Ali (QAT) 5. Phil Burford (GBR) 6. Seungwoo Ryu (KOR) 7. Ke Bign Zhong (TPE) 8. Thorsten Hohmann (GER) |
| GROUP C 1. Fu Che Wei (TPE) 2. Sharik Aslam Sayed (SIN) 3. Dang Jinhu (CHN) 4. Fu Jianbo (CHN) 5. Kenny Kwok (HKG) 6. Rafath Habib (IND) 7. Alex Pagulayan (CAN) 8. Karl Boyes (GBR) | GROUP D 1. Li Hewen (CHN) 2. Carlo Biado (PHL) 3. John Morra (CAN) 4. Zhou Long (CHN) 5. Oscar Dominguez (USA) 6. Afrinneza Isral Nasution (IND) 7. Jeffrey De Luna (PHL) 8. Chris Melling (GBR) |
| GROUP E 1. Darren Appleton (GBR) 2. Jalal Yousef (VEN) 3. Cristian Tuvi (URU) 4. Wang Can (CHN) 5. Niels Feijen (NED) 6. Wu Jiaqing (CHN) 7. Nick Ekonomopoulos (GRE) 8. Nick Van Den Berg (NED) | GROUP F 1. Ko Pin Yi (TPE) 2. Chu Bingjie (CHN) 3. Zeng Zhaodong (CHN) 4. Johann Chua (PHL) 5. Tursaikhan Amarjargal 6. Nick Malai (ALB) 7. Lee Van Corteza (PHL) 8. Do The Kien (VIE) |
| GROUP G 1. Ralf Souquet (GER) 2. Zbynek Vaic (RSA) 3. Hunter Lombardo (USA) 4. Chang Pei Wei (TPE) 5. Bashar Hussain (QAT) 6. Radoslaw Babica (POL) 7. Zhang Yulong (TPE) 8. Liu Haitao (CHN) | GROUP H 1. Dennis Orcollo (PHL) 2. Ahen Yuxuan (TPE) 3. Albin Ouschan (AUT) 4. James Delahunty (AUS) 5. Alejandro Carvajal (CHI) 6. Daryl Peach (GBR) 7. Cheng Tsung Hua (TPE) 8. Huidji See (NED) |
THE 2013 CHINA 9 BALL OPEN - WOMEN | |
SHANGHAI - CHINA | |
THE PLAYERS | |
| 1. Kelly Fisher(GBR) 2. Liu Jia(CHN) 3. Xia Yuying(CHN) 4. Karen Corr(IRL) 5. Chichiro Kawahara(JPN) 6. Pan Xiaoting(CHN) 7. Tan Ho Yun(TPE) 8. Chan Ya Ting(TPE) 9. Hyun Ji Won(KOR) 10. Yang Fan(CHN) 11. Doan Thi Ngoc Le(VIE) 12. Lin Yuanjun(TPE) 13. Liu Shasha(CHN) 14. Gao Meng(CHN) 15. Ma’sum Fathrah(IND) 16. Wei Tzu Chien(TPE) 17. Angeline Magdalena Ticoalu(RSA) 18. Chen Xue(CHN) 19. Yu Ram Cha(KOR) 20. Eunji Park(KOR) 21. Brittany Bryant(CAN) 22. Carlynn Sanchez(VEN) 23. Allison Fisher(GBR) 24. Ga Young Kim(KOR) | 25. Chen Siming(CHN) 26. Mrjana Grujicic(VEN) 27. Li Jia(CHN) 28. Zhu Tingting(CHN) 29. Jasmin Michel(GER) 30. Lan Hiushan(TPE) 31. Han Yu(CHN) 32. Bi Zhu Qing(CHN) 33. Charlene Chai Zeet Huey(SIN) 34. Nicola Ilse Rossouw(RSA) 35. Jing Jia(CHN) 36. Chou Chieh Yu(TPE) 37. Tsai Pei Chen(TPE) 38. Keiko Yukawa(JPN) 39. Wu Jing(CHN) 40. Liu Yichen(CHN) 41. Akimi Kajatani(JPN) 42. Jasmin Ouschan(AUT) 43. Zhou Doudou(CHN) 44. Bai Ge(CHN) 45. Liu Shin Mei(TPE) 46. Han Fang(CHN) 47. Rubelin Amit(PHL) 48. Fu Xiaofang(CHN) |
THE 2013 CHINA 9 BALL OPEN - MEN | ||
SHANGHAI - CHINA | ||
THE LAST 32 | ||
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THE 2013 CHINA 9 BALL OPEN - MEN | ||
SHANGHAI - CHINA | ||
THE LAST 16 | ||
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THE 2013 CHINA 9 BALL OPEN - MEN | ||
SHANGHAI - CHINA | ||
THE QUARTER FINALS | ||
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THE 2013 CHINA 9 BALL OPEN - MEN | ||
SHANGHAI - CHINA | ||
THE SEMI FINALS | ||
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THE 2013 CHINA 9 BALL OPEN - MEN | ||
SHANGHAI - CHINA | ||
THE FINAL | ||
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THE 2013 CHINA 9 BALL OPEN - WOMEN | ||
SHANGHAI - CHINA | ||
THE LAST 16 | ||
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THE 2013 CHINA 9 BALL OPEN - WOMEN | ||
SHANGHAI - CHINA | ||
THE QUARTER FINALS | ||
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THE 2013 CHINA 9 BALL OPEN - WOMEN | ||
SHANGHAI - CHINA | ||
THE SEMI FINALS | ||
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THE 2013 CHINA 9 BALL OPEN - WOMEN | ||
SHANGHAI - CHINA | ||
THE FINAL | ||
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THE 2013 CHINA 9 BALL OPEN - MEN | ||
SHANGHAI - CHINA | ||
THE PRIZE FUND | ||
1st | US $ 40,000-00 | |
2nd | US $ 20,000-00 | |
3rd - 4th | US $ 10,000-00 | |
5th - 8th | US $ 5,500-00 | |
9th - 16th | US $ 2,400-00 | |
17th - 32nd | US $ 1,200-00 | |
33rd - 64th | US $ 700-00 | |
THE 2012 CHINA 9 BALL OPEN - WOMEN | ||
SHANGHAI - CHINA | ||
THE PRIZE FUND | ||
1st | US $ 30,000-00 | |
2nd | US $ 15,000-00 | |
3rd - 4th | US $ 7,500-00 | |
5th - 8th | US $ 4,000-00 | |
9th - 16th | US $ 1,800-00 | |
17th - 32nd | US $ 900-00 | |
33rd - 48th | US $ 500-00 | |
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