Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Group pairings for the World Straight Pool Championship

The group pairings for the WPA-sanctioned World Straight Pool Championship have been announced.

Among the players taking part are Thorsten Hohmann, Ralf Souquet, Johnny Archer, Mika Immonen, John "Mr. 400" Schmidt, Oliver Ortmann, Thomas Engert, Dennis Orcollo, Mike Zuglan, Bobby Hunter and Tony Robles.

It's also great to see three women on the list; Jasmin Ouschan, Jeanette Lee and Megan Minerich.

The tournament is promoted by Dragon Promotions and will be held from May 30 to June 4, in East Brunswick, New Jersey.

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Sunday, May 21, 2006

Souquet and Ouschan claim top spots in EnjoyPool.com 9-ball Championships

Ralf Souquet (German) and Jasmin Ouschan (Austria) won the men's and women's division in the EnjoyPool.com 9-ball Championships. The event was formerly known as BCA Open.

In the finals Souquet beat Johnny Archer (USA) 7-5. Ouschan beat Allison Fisher (England) by the same score. Archer also finished second in 2005. Fisher was the defending champion. The winners both received $20,000, while the runner-ups won $10,000.

Efren Reyes (Philippines) and Helena Thörnfeldt (Sweden) finished third in their respective divisions. Reyes had an amazing match against American Allen Hopkins in the second round. He managed to come back from 10-1 down to win 11-10! The fact that they were using alternate breaks makes the feat even more incredible.

20-year-old Ouschan has already won many events in her career but this must be considered her definitive breakthrough on the world stage. On her way to the final she beat big names such as Ga-Young Kim (South Korea), Karen Corr (Northern Ireland), Kelly Fisher (England), Gerda Hofstätter (Austria), Shin-Mei Liu (Taiwan) and Thörnfeldt.

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Caudron is new European three cushion champion

Frédéric Caudron from Belgium won the European Three Cushion Championship in Antalya, Turkey.

In the final against home hope Semih Sayginer he came back from two games down to prevail 3-2. Current Spanish world champion Daniel Sanchez and Dick Jaspers from Netherlands captured the bronze medals.

Caudron had the highest average in the tournament, with 1.937. Brian Knudsen (Denmark) had the highest single match average with 3.750. Knudsen and Filipos Kasidokostas (Greece) both made runs of 15 in the event and shared the honors for highest break.

Swedish legend Torbjörn Blomdahl finished in a disappointing 17th place.

Caudron is No.3 in the current World Players Ranking and won the World Three Cushion Championship in 1999.

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Friday, May 12, 2006

Reyes takes Asian Tour Opener

Efren "The Magician" Reyes (Philippines) captured the first leg of the San Miguel Asian 9-ball Tour. In the final he beat Li He Wen from China 11-6.

The two players overcame a strong field to reach the finals. Also entered were two-time world champion Chia-Ching Wu (Taiwan), 2004 world champion Alex Pagulayan (Canada), Marlon Manalo (Philippines), former world champion Fong-Pang Chao (Taiwan), Francisco Bustamante (Philippines) and 2005 Asian Tour leader Chin-Shun Yang (Taiwan).

First prize was $10,000. Reyes has now won a total of six events on the Tour. He was overall champion the first two years (2003-2004).

The competition was held in Ho-Chin-Minh City, Vietnam. Next stop is Bangkok, Thailand on June 2-4. There are a total of four events in the Tour. The top 10 finishers in the Order of Merit will earn spots in the 2006 World Pool Championship.

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Monday, May 08, 2006

Stolka is surprise winner in Sindelfingen

With Germany's domination of the Euro Tour most people wouldn't be surprised to see a home win in the Dynamic Billard German Open. They probably didn't expect Harald Stolka to be the one standing on top of the podium though.

The relatively unknown player clinched the title after coming through a number of close matches, two going the full distance.

His biggest margin of victory was actually in the final, where he defeated countryman Oliver Ortmann 10-7. Earlier he had beaten Niels Feijen (Netherlands) 10-9 in the semi-finals.

The win takes Stolka to No.36 in the Euro Tour Ranking. That's an improvement of 50 places! Thomas Engert (Germany) retains his lead and Feijen moves into second. Imran Majid (England) stays in third.

Stolka is the current No.1 in the PAT rankings. He has a total of 963 points in PAT 3.

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Saturday, May 06, 2006

Newsbites #1

The Newsbites series is meant to cover stuff not included in other entries. Here is the first edition.

News in General
Recent events

Upcoming events

Friday, May 05, 2006

Dott is new world snooker champion

Scotland's Graeme Dott pulled off one of the biggest upsets in recent years by winning the 888.Com World Snooker Championship.

In the final he beat former world champion Peter Ebdon by 18-14. His best win may have been against Ronnie O'Sullivan though. They met in the semi-finals and Dott came out on top with 17-11.

Dott moves up to No. 6 in the new world rankings. Stephen Hendry is the new man on top, having regained the position he held throughout most of the nineties. Ken Doherty and Ronnie O'Sullivan are in close pursuit though.

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