Pudong Tangzhen Culture and Sports Center
Shanghai
China
www.alison-chang.com - live stream
4-11 June 2017
2017 CHINA OPEN AWARDING
Report by Ian Anderson - WPA
Just as everybody was expecting the men's semi-finals to be closely contested, the opposite happened and both Chang Jung-Lin and Joshua Filler ran out the easiest of winners, with the scores of 11/2 & 11/3 respectively. With both players in great form, the final just had to be a close contest, but again one player was clearly superior. In this case it was the new kid on the block, Joshua Filler of Germany. Most people thought the experience and talent of Chang would have been too much for a youngster like Filler to be able to handle in the final of a major tournament for his first time, but he proved them all wrong winning comfortably 11/6.
The women's final was also expected to be close, but when Chen Siming jumped away to lead 7/3 against two time world champion Liu Shasha in a race to 9, it looked like being an early night. The roll of the ball was against Shasha with nothing going right, then Chen made an unforced error and the change came about. Shasha won the next 3 racks to make it 7/6, then Chen won and it was now 8/6, but Shasha fought back after Chen made an illegal break and won the next two and evened the score at 8/8. Visibly shaken, Shasha was hot favourite for the title she was defending, but Chen gathered her emotions, made a good break and was able to run the rack and claim first prize.
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CHINA OPEN - Final Day
IT'S GERMANY vs GERMANY, TAIWAN vs TAIWAN and CHINA vs CHINA
The 2017 China Open has reached the concluding stages with only the men's semi-finals and final remaining as well as the final of the women.
The men's semi-finals ensure that the final will have the same make-up as Taiwan's Chang Jung-Lin vs Cheng Yu-Hsuan and the other semi-final features German players Thorsten Hohmann and Joshua Filler. In the women's final, Chen Siming will play against Liu Shasha.
Chang has played very well to reach the semis, he defeated world number 1, Ko Pin-Yi, former world champion, Ralf Souquet, and Ko Ping-Chung, Pin-Yi's younger brother. Cheng has performed equally as well defeating Ahmad Taufiq, Jayson Shaw and Carlo Biado to earn his place in the semi-final. This his expected to be a great match between two great players, the score line should be close.
In the other semi-final, it's old versus new. Thorsten Hohmann is former world champion and prolific winner of tournaments around the world. He has been a top player for many years and is still ranked at world number 13. His opponent, Joshua Filler is a new recruit to world pool, but already with some impressive scalps under his belt. Filler recently won the Junior's European Championship and is a participant at the World Games next month in Poland. Hohmann defeated Niels Feijen, Wang Can and Mateusz Sniegocki to reach his semi-final and Filler had victories over Francisco Ruiz, Marco Teutscher and current world champion, Albin Ouschan.
The women's final is an all China affair and promises another great match between two of the best players in the game. Liu Shasha has been twice world champion and she is up against her great rival Chen Siming, world ranked number 2 and recent winner of the Amway Cup. This will be the final match of the China Open and will commence after the completion of the men's final.
