NEWS December 25, 2006  Super Cup – Taiwanese domination



Arena
 

At this year’s edition of the Super Cup 9-Ball, an invitational of the Chinese Taipei Billiard Association (CTBA), six players from the domestic federation and eight international players were invited. The 14 players competed in two groups of 7 players in round robin format and races to 7 with winner’s break.

In my group A, I was first facing the Philippine player Alex Pagulayan. In a match with too many mistakes on both sides, I finished winning 7-5. My next match was against Jose Parica, the second Philippine player of the group. I played much better and after leading 4-0, I won the match 7-3. Right after this match it came to the clash with defending champion Ching-Shun Yang from Taiwan. I started well and took a 3-0 lead. Then the score evolved to 4-2 and 6-4 and finally I deserved to score a tight 7-6 win. In the last match of the day, I was playing Raj Hundal from Great Britain. I won the first two racks, before Hundal scored the 1-2. In rack four, the player from Britain did not have a good position on the 8 ball and missed it. I did not allow him to return to the table and ran out the match to win 7-1.

This already secured me a berth in the final round on day three. Now, I played for winning the group, because the winners of both groups were directly qualified for the semi-finals, whereas the second and third of each group entered the quarter-finals.

The next day, my opponent was Kun-Fang Lee from Taiwan and from the beginning, I was not in the zone. After trailing 0-2 and 2-3, I had to sit and watch the Taiwanese player run out four tables to win 7-2. Now, I had to win the last group match against the third Taiwanese player and WC bronze medal winner Che-Wei Fu. Again, I was playing well and after running out four tables, I was leading 5-0. Fu could score one rack, but I finished the match with an ace to win 7-1. As the winner of my group, I was qualified for the semi-final on Sunday.

The results of group A:

Souquet – Pagulayan   7-5          Fu – Hundal   4-7
Souquet – Parica   7-3                Lee – Pagulayan   3-7
Hundal – Parica   4-7                 Yang – Souquet   6-7
Fu – Parica   4-7                        Souquet – Hundal   7-1
Yang – Pagulayan   7-0               Fu – Lee   7-2
Yang – Lee   7-4                         Lee – Souquet   7-2
Yang – Parica   3-7                     Hundal – Pagulayan   7-6
Fu – Pagulayan   6-7                  Lee – Hundal   7-5
Yang – Hundal   7-4                    Pagulayan – Parica   7-4
Fu – Souquet   1-7                      Lee – Parica   6-7
Yang – Fu   7-4 

Win = 3 points, defeat = 1 point

Ranking:

1. Ralf Souquet (GER)          37-23 racks      16 points
2. Ching-Shun Yang (TWN)  37-26 racks      14 points
3. Jose Parica (PHI)              35-31 racks      14 points
4. Alex Pagulayan (PHI)           32-34 racks      12 points
5. Kun-Fang Lee (TWN)         29-35 racks      10 points
6. Raj Hundal (GBR)               28-38 racks       10 points
7. Che-Wei Fu (TWN)            26-37 racks       08 points

 


Interview with Ralf

Thomas Engert, the second German participant, had a real bad day one and started with three defeats. On day two, he came back and won his three matches. But this was only sufficient to terminate on rank 5 in his groups and he finished 9th in the overall ranking.

The resulats of group B:

Chang – Engert   7-2              Morris – Alcano   4-7
Chao – Hijikata   7-5              Engert – Alcano   2-7
Wu – Morris   7-4                   Chao – Chang   6-7
Wu – Hijikata   7-4                 Chao – Alcano   7-1
Morris – Hijikata   7-3           Wu – Engert   7-3
Chang – Morris   4-7             Chao – Engert   3-7
Alcano – Hijikata   7-1           Wu – Chang   3-7
Wu – Alcano   7-5                  Chang – Hijikata   7-4
Chang – Alcano   0-7             Engert – Morris   7-4
Chao – Wu   7-4                    Engert – Hijikata   7-2
Chao – Morris   7-6

 

Ranking:
1. Fong-Pang Chao (TWN)      37-30 racks                        14 points       
2. Chia-Ching Wu (TWN)        35-30 racks                        14 points
3. Ronato Alcano (PHI)           34-21 racks                        14 points
4. Jung-Lin Chang (TWN)          32-29 racks                        14 points
5. Thomas Engert (GER)             28-30 racks                        12 points
6. Rodney Morris (USA)            32-35 racks                        10 points
7. Hayato Hijikata                       19-42 racks                        06 points

The basis fort he ranking were first the scored points and second, the number of won racks. The third criteria was the number of lost racks. Only if these three criteria were equal, the result of the direct match would have been taken into account.

Due to this system, only two quarter-finals were played, opposing the second of group A to the third of group B and vice versa.
This gave the following results

Yang – Alcano   7-6
Wu – Parica   7-4


Ralf

In the semi-final, I was opposed to Chia-Ching Wu from Taiwan, the double World Champion of 2005. I won the first rack after a jump shot foul by Wu. In rack two, I had a difficult entry ball on the 1 ball upon the break and I missed it. Wu scored the rack and five more to lead 1-6. I won the next rack and at 2-6, I had a bad contact on the 7 ball. So, I lost 2-7 and had to play the bronze medal match against Fong-Pang Chao. Chao had lost the second semi-final against Ching-Shun Yang 5-7.

The match for rank 3 was a copy of my semi-final. Upon the break, I had to play a push-out and was handed back the table. I tried a safety shot and almost succeeded. But the 2 ball travelled so close and straight on the 9 ball that my opponent could not miss this combination. Chao made use of this opportunity and ran out four consecutive tables. At 0-5, I scored the first point, but lost the next one to trail 1-6. I won the next rack and the score was 2-6. After missing the 7 ball in the next rack, I had to accept my 2-7 defeat against the two times World Champion. In spite of this bad Sunday where things did not work out well for me, I finished on the 4th rank, even though I had played a good tournament.

The final was a pure Taiwanese affair opposing defending champion Ching-Shun Yang and 2005 World Champion Chia-Ching Wu. In a single-sided final, defending champion Yang showed his best tournament performance and crashed Wu 11-1. So, he successfully defended his title and went home with a Christmas prime of 20,000 dollars.

I wish you all a good Christmas time and a happy, healthy and successful 2007.

Ralf “The Kaiser“ Souquet

 

Award ceremony


Illy with the sister from Hijikata