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At
this years Tokyo 9-Ball in the Billiards Hall Mickey & Neptune in
Edogawa-ku, 8 players could qualify during four days. Already the
qualification was played on a very high level and World Champions M. Immonen
(FIN) and T. Hohmann (GER) and R. Gallego, D. Orcullo and A. Gabica (all PHI)
could earn a spot for the tournament.
As winner of the Japan Cup of the JBC, I was seeded for the final round of
32 players and the draw made me play a Japanese qualifier in the first round.
I was in control of the match against K. Furushima and won 9-2, in spite of
the changing break. In round two, I played K. Suzuki from Japan. A few
months ago, I had defeated him in the quarter-finals of the Japan Cup and
repeated this success by winning 9-2.
To earn a spot in the quarter-finals, I had to win against R. Alcano (PHI).
Thze player from the Philippines made a surprising number of mistakes and so
the match was easier than expected and I fully deserved to win 9-5.
Before the quarter-finals, we had to go through the same procedure than at
the Japan Cup. The players were called according to the tournament sheet and
had to draw a number between 1 and 8. Then, the number 1 could chose a spot
on the flowchart and so on. I draw number 6 and had to chose between two
players from the Philippines, D. Orcullo and R. Gallego. I choose Gallego,
and this turned out to be the wrong choice.
The quarter-final matches were played in two sets in races to 6 with two
racks difference. At 6-6, it came to the famous Penalty shot-out, similar to
the tie-breaker in tennis on 7 points.
In the first set against
Gallego, I wasn’t lucky with my break and in spite of three black breaks,
I made it to the tie-breaker. But here, I missed 3 of 4 penalties and lost
the first set 6-7 (3-7). In the second set, I could break Gallego once and
equalled the score by winning the set 6-4. In the decisive third set, once
more the break brought the decision in favour of the man from the
Philippines. Twice, I did not have an entry position and had to play a
push-out. Both times I lost the rack and after almost 4 hours of play, I had
lost the third set 3-6.
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Edogawa
Kumin Center
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Here the other results:
Y. Niwa (JPN) – M. Immonen 2-1
C.
Williams (USA) – D. Orcullo 2-0
T. Hohmann – A. Lining (PHI)
2-1
In the semi-finals, the results were:
Hohmann – Niwa 2-6, 6-4, 6-4
Gallego – Williams 6-7, 7-5, 6-2
Due
to a three-hour delay in the tournament organization, the final was
played in only one set in a race to 7. The promoter had to empty the
hall until a certain hour and this would not have been possible by
playing two sets.
The player from the
Philippines had the better start and dominated the match right from
the beginning. With his 7-2 victory he confirmed his good
performance and the German World Champion of 2003 did not stand a
chance.
Here the results of the quarter-finals of the women competition:
T. Takemoto (JPN) – K. Minami (JPN)
7-4
N. Hayashi (JPN) – H. Sahara (JPN)
7-3
Y.
Takahashi (JPN) – S. Mori 7-3
J. Lee (CHN) – M. Sakai (JPN)
7-4
The
semi-finals:
Hayashi
– Takemoto 7-3
Takahashi – Lee 7-4
Final:
Takahashi – Hayashi 7-4
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Miyuki - Ralf
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