Liu ShaSha Crowned World Champion‏

Liu ShaSha of China successfully defended her title and proved to the world that she is the best in women's pool by snatching the World 9-Ball Championship title for a third time.  A tight tug-of-war would be expected between the defending champion and the current Euro Tour champion Jasmine Ouschan (Austria), but the final resulted with a rather surprising and preposterous score of 9-4.

In the playoff, Chieh-Yu Chou of Chinese Taipei took the 2nd runner-up place by beating Chihiro Kawahara 9-7.

When the battle reached the semi-finals, Liu was then the only player from China left in the field.  If she goes out at that stage, record would be made for the first time ever that no Chinese players were in the final since the tournament had moved to China in 2009.  Immense pressure then on Liu's shoulders.

Nervousness also came from other sources, such as being in the final again, the burden of defending the title, the desire to lift the trophy up for the third time, the possibility of winning the most world titles amongst team China players,... all these contributed to Liu's tension and it was shown on her face during the final match.

"All along I was playing from behind throughout the whole tournament.  I did not perform well.  The thought of defending the title had been haunting me.  Too much nerves and pressure.  My coach was trying to adjust my thoughts by asking me to focus on one ball at a time; but with him being on the bench not much could be changed anything while I was out there at the table..." said the champion after the match.

The night before the final, Liu was telling us about her desire to defend the title in Guilin.  "70% of the performance will depend on psychological, if I could clear my mind then I could play well.  Judging on the regular training, being in the top 4 is already satisfactory.  The final tomorrow will be mere expectation.  Whether win or lose I'll just play my game."

In the double-elimination stage, Liu beat Bai Ge and Han Fang to move into the next round.  After that, she knocked out Akimi Kajitani of Japan (9-0), Wei Zih-Chian of Chinese Taipei (9-5), her Chinese colleague Gao Meng (9-2), and then the 3-times Amway Cup champion Chieh-Yu Chou in the semi to reach the final against Ouschan.

In the group round, Jasmin Ouschan won over Jennifer Barretta and Kelly Fisher with 7:5 and 7:3 qualified for the single-knockout stage. After that, Ouschan defeated Park Eun-Ji (KOR) 9:4、Chezka Centeno (PHI) 9:8、Pan Xiaoting (CHN) 9:6 and Chihiro Kawahara (JPN) 9:8 to booked her seat in the final.

Having successfully defended her title, Shasha had already won the World Women 9-Ball Championship three times, passing Kim Ga-Young of Korea (2), and fell short with just one from the all time legend the "Duchess of Doom" Allison Fisher of England.

(Li XiaoLong / Samuel Lai / Allison Chang)

Women's World 9 Ball Championship Update.

By: Erik Hjorleifson 

The Women's World Championships is underway in Gulin, China. The event features 64 of the Worlds top Women vying for a piece of the $170 000 prize which boasts a $42 000 first prize and a $20 000 second prize which must be noted is higher than what is on offer a the Men's World Championships.

In recent years the Asian women have emerged as the number 1 contenders  for Women's international titles. The Front runners of those Asian of those Asian countries include China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan and a good number of those players are under 25. Alongside the perennial Asian threats Allison Fisher, Kelly Fisher, Jasmine Ouschan,Monica Webb and Brittany Bryant head up the hopes for the western side. Surprisingly Karen Corr is absent this year for reasons unknown.

This years championships follows the typical WPA format in recent years with players drawn into double knockout groups of 8 with 4 advancing to the single knockout final 32 stage. The group stages were played on the 4th and 5th and here are some notable results.

Undefeated Players

Pan Xiaoting

Chen Siming

Jasmine Ouschan

Rubilen Amit

Chieh You Chou

Liu Sha Sha

Han Yu

Fu Xiao Fang

Allison Fisher

Ga Young Kim

Notable players failing to advance to the single knockout stages

Kelly Fisher

Jenninfer Baretta

Emily Duddy

Brittany Bryant

Shin Mei Liu

Monica Webb

The first round of the single knockout stages was also completed yesterday and here are some notable scores

Chezka Centeno (young filipino up and comer) 9 Zhou do Do 6

Chieh Yeh Chou 9 Kamila Khodejeva (2014 World Junior Champion) 7

Han Yu 9 Yuan Chun Lin (2014 Amway Cup champion) 1

Gao Meng (15 year old Chinese prodigy 9 Jiang Teng 7

This brings us down to the final 16 and every match will be tough from here, there is a free streaming link at http://alison-chang.com/the-womens-9-ball-world-championship-2015-is-set-to-kick-off-in-a-brand-new-battlefield/#more-14544  and the stream is fairly good quality. All the draws and results can be seen at http://alison-chang.com/ special thanks to Alison Chang for up to date coverage on this event

Patrick Chang Wins Steinway Classic

From left to right, 2015 U.S Open Champion Cheng Yu Hsuan, Hsu Kai Lun, Steinway winner Patrick Chang, Runner up Ko Pin Chung, Markus Noé, 2015 World 9 &10 Ball Champion Ko Pin Yi and Chang Jung Lin. Photo taken by Mandy Wu. 

By: Markus Noé

Tuesday November 2nd saw the remaining 8 players return to find out who would be the 4th Annual Steinway Classic Champion. Jayson Shaw vs Ko Pin Chung squared off in the winners side final four match. By the time I got to the pool room this match was just being completed and Shaw was explaining to a few spectators his loss to Chung who apparently played flawless. In the other winners side match in this bracket Warren Kiamco was up against Patrick Chang. This was a thrilling match with it going all the way down to the wire at 8-8 race to 9. Unfortunately for Kiamco he scratched off his final break allowing Chang to run out for the win.

While waiting for the winners side final to begin against Patrick Chang and Ko Pin Chung, Darren Appleton eliminated Kiamco and Shaw did the same to Nick Van den Berg 9-5 and 9-6. The fourth place match between Shaw and Appleton did not last long as Shaw hit his gear and won 9-4 in what seemed like less then 30 minutes.

Chung vs Shaw 

This next match was to me the most impressive performance of the tournament in my opinion. Shaw earned himself a rematch against Chung. Perhaps in the back of Shaw's mind there was some doubt as he just lost to Chung in not only dominating fashion, but Chung did so with a chilling calmness and accuracy that can make you feel as if you will never get an opportunity. That being said Shaw did come out firing full of confidence from his previous match and was up 3-0 in minutes. Then it was a mid rack error from Shaw that allowed Chung to the table.  Chung then proceeded to run this rack out and 4 more to go up 5-3 a very impressive feat considering they were playing 10 ball call shot and call safety.

 The three time reigning Turning Stone Classic Champion seemed perplexed after this. His body language began to change and when he did finally have a chance at the table he made uncharacteristic errors. It was almost as in his head he felt as if this hill was too much to climb.In the end he made a little bit of a comeback but lost 9-6.

Patrick Chang 

The final match was an all Taiwanese affair something that has been common this year has Taiwan as been dominating all the major tournaments. Despite his early loss to Chang, the younger Ko brother Chung came in as a favorite to win the title. This match started off with both players exchanging racks and the score remained fairly close. At 5-5 Chang began to pull away in this extended final race to 13 and eventually won 13-11 to become the 4th Annual Steinway Classic Champion.

Overall my first experience at Steinway Billiards was fantastic. Keeping in mind I traveled 7 hours from my hometown of Cornwall, Ontario population of 46,000, seeing what I call "big city pool action" was thrilling. Immediately upon walking through the doors Sunday afternoon I was taken over by how many spectators came to watch and bet the matches. The entire 3 days of my trip I felt comfortable in this atmosphere as everyone was very accommodating. There was literally people from all over the world at this event and we were all there for the same purpose to either play in this tournament or appreciate the world class talent that was in front of us.

For those that have never been to this event it is really hard to imagine that so many players ranked in the top 50 in the world were all in one pool hall. During the day we all watched as champion after champion played one another in the tournament and at night those who did not fair so well would be looking for "challenge matches" to recoup expenses and even make a little money.

I had the pleasure of watching John Morra play two challenge matches while I was at Steinway. The first was against Jorge Rodriguez. Morra who is currently ranked 8th in the world had to give the wild 8 to the Gotham City house pro. For those not familiar with this it means that if Rodriguez makes the 8 ball he wins the rack. To be honest I remember thinking to myself I did not really like the game. I have never seen Rodriguez play live until this week but have seen him play a lot on various streams over the past few years. I have seen him play at a very high level and I was a bit concerned. These concerns were to me were validated when Morra went down 4-0 early however in a blink of an eye it was 12-7 Morra and then he went on to win 21-14.

Morra vs Gomez 

The other match I watched was Morra vs Roberto Gomez. This match kept me up till 5:30 am and I was scheduled to leave the city at 6:30 am. This was a much tighter affair, however I felt Morra had much more to offer in this match but fatigue was obviously setting in and he lost 16-15. From here I went back to the apartment we were staying at got my things together and hit the road back home.

I would like to thank William Finnegan and Tony Robles for hosting a great event and giving me everything I needed to cover this for Cue Sport Nation.  They are both very professional and ran a smooth and classy event. Also I would like to thank my sponsor David Touhey of Touhey Management located in Ottawa, Ontario for helping me get to Steinway. He is one of the single biggest supporters of pool I have ever met. My partner Erik Hjorleifson and myself would like to be on the road more often to bring you, the "Nation" more results and the overall experience of life on the road for the top players in the world.

 From the response on our Facebook page and website during the U.S Open, Turning Stone and the Steinway Classic it is apparent there is a need for this type of coverage. However we cannot do it on our own. Therefore we invite you to go to http://cuesportnation.com/ to donate. If you are interested in becoming a cash sponsor or product sponsor I can be contacted at markus.noe@live.com. I would like to thank everyone for their continued support.

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Top 3 Payouts

Patrick Chang $7500
Ko Pin Chung $5000
Jayson Shaw $3000 

Steinway Classic has Begun!

By: Markus Noé

Day one of the Steinway Classic kicked off with an 8 hour drive for myself and road partner/C.S.N sponsor David Touhey. As I write this brief update it is 1:15 am and I have been on the go since 5:00 a.m. yesterday. En route we got slightly sidetracked just before Lake Placid which is about an hour away from where we began in Cornwall, Ontario. Somehow lost in our excitement on the way to Queens, New York to watch some world class pool we forgot to fill up on gas.

We ended up running out of gas about 3 miles outside the nearest gas station. While making the trek in the pouring rain we watched helplessly as about 30 cars passed on this country road until finally a very nice couple from Michigan pulled over and offered us a ride. When we got over this embarrassing aggravation we made fairly good time the rest of the way. We reached Steinway Billiards and immediately immersed ourselves in the most action packed pool hall either one of us has ever walked into.

Hsu Kai-Lin

The first match I witnessed was Alex Pagulayan vs Hsu Kai-Lun. Pagulayan of course needs no introduction however Lun, would be a fairly new face for North Americans. He is one of the many talented players from Chinese-Taipei. He had his coming out party in North America with his 5/6 finish at the U.S Open last week.

This match was close with these two playing at an extremely high level. However at 5-5 Pagulayan who had a bit of a disappointing U.S Open, appeared to have regained his form stringing some racks together quickly and winning 9-5. This was a winners side match so Lun was done, yet I believe he won his next match and is still currently in the tournament. With nearly 100 world beaters in one pool room it is a bit difficult to keep up with more than 2-3 matches at a time.

Daryl Peach and Ralf Souquet  also played a very entertaining match. This match like the previous one was played on the streamed table so some of you might have enjoyed this one along with me. Souquet was dominate in the start and took advantage of some errors from Peach. When the score was 8-5 for Souquet, Peach mounted a charge which came up just short as he went on to lose.

Souquet then went on to play Jayson Shaw on the third round of the winners side. In this match Shaw exacted some revenge on Souquet who beat him out in the 5/6 position at the U.S Open just a few days ago 11-10. Shaw was back to an exciting run and gun style while making everything, he easily won 9-2.

John Morra

John Morra won his first two matches against Zion Zvi and Hunter Lombardo before he ran into homeroom favourite, Earl Strickland. This was a very entertaining match for the locals as well as for the fans who came from out of town to watch. The lead exchanged several times until Strickland just got his nose across the finish line 9-7. There was one major upset of the day as Shane VanBoening lost to Alan Rolon.

Come back daily to Cue Sport Nation for updates on the Steinway Classic. We will be posting articles as well as updates throughout the day on our Facebook page in the form of pictures and video. If you don't have to work this week I highly recommend going to http://www.steinwaybilliards.com/ to purchase the live stream hosted by Upstate Al. I would like to thank Tony Robles for helping me secure everything I need to cover this great event as well as one of Cue Sport Nation's biggest supporters, David Touhey of Touhey Management.