Kelly Fisher
Janet Atwell hosts first Borderline Brunswick Invitational in a new Borderline Billiards facility
Unlike pool tours that measure member performance on more or less of a yearly basis, wiping the slate clean to start fresh once a tour’s new season gets underway, the Women’s Professional Billiards Association’s (WPBA) Leaderboard is a snapshot of its last 10 events; a sort of ‘what have you done for me lately’ look at a player’s accomplishments on the tour, represented in points-earned. With two of the WPBA’s top competitors (Jasmin Ouschan, #3 and Allison Fisher, #7) not in attendance for this past (long) weekend’s Borderline Brunswick Invitational (May 1-5), there were opportunities, both literally and figuratively, ‘on the table’ for those who were in attendance to advance a notch or two on the Leaderboard.
None of them could have de-throned either Tzu-Chien Wei from her #1 spot or Kelly Fisher from #2, who battled twice against Kristina Tkach to claim the title. Fisher and Tzu-Chien have competed in nine of the 10 qualifying events dating back to the 2022 Puerto Rico Open and had too much of a ‘points’ lead to be caught in a single event. If Tzu-Chien had opted out of the Borderline Invitational, Kelly would have left Bristol, TN in the top spot. As it turned out, Tzu-Chien finished in the tie for 5th place, adding enough points to her 10-event total to retain the top spot.
There were a couple of individual noteworthy performances at the $20,000-added Borderline Brunswick Invitational that drew 80 entrants to the new Borderline Brunswick Arena in Bristol, TN, formerly just Borderline Billiards. The new site is within walking distance of the old one, and did not host this event without a lot of predictable ‘opening’ issues, as workers at the new site coordinated their schedules to create and ‘polish’ the interior in time for this event. Room owner Janet Atwell not only pulled it all together in time (there was a ‘soft opening’ of the doors a week earlier for the general public), but did so after weeks and weeks of frustrating delays, discovered issues with the architecture, the everyday hassles of opening a new business and sustaining an ankle injury. She also competed in the event she was hosting, looking for an opportunity to sustain or improve on her #11 position on the WPBA Leaderboard.
Atwell joined April Larson in the streaming booth for the Fisher/Tkach final and in addition to insightful observations about shot-making choices and table situations, the girls got to chatting a bit, with April asking her early-on how she was feeling about the opening of her new pool room.
“I’m absolutely blown away,” Atwell told her, although, at the moment she was asked, she added “I’m wondering when I’m going to get some sleep.”
“It’s been a roller coaster of emotions,” she went on to say, noting that it took some perseverance to get to the point at which she owned the 130-year-old building and became the beneficiary of the good fortune that led to her being able to stay in the downtown Bristol area where she had launched the original Borderline Billiards 18 years ago. In addition to changing from tenant to property owner, the shift allowed Atwell to maintain the original name, because the new Borderline Billiards, as with the old Borderline Billiards, exists on the state line between Virginia and Tennessee.
“A lot of stars had to align to let me stay downtown,” she said. “I didn’t want to leave the downtown community.”
“There’s still a lot of things to do to get it where I want it,” she added. “You know, you have a budget, start out at a certain point and the ideas continue. I’ve added a lot more money, but it’s added more to the value, too.”
In noting enthusiastic responses from those in attendance (including Larson herself), Larson asked her if the reality of the new room was better than she’d imagined it would be.
“It is,” she replied. “It’s one thing to build a nice place, but when people react positively, it’s not just for me, but for the people who love pool and the community, too.”
Atwell went on to note that while she had not done as well as she might have hoped in competing for the first title in her new room, she felt good about the effort that she’d put in to it. It was an effort, she explained, that was aided by an unexpected difference.
“Haven’t hit a ball to speak of in three or four months,” she explained to Larson and a larger audience in the chat room of the stream. “I stayed down on my shots, ‘cause I didn’t have the energy to jump up.”
Atwell finished in the tie for 17th place, as 13-year-old Savannah Easton, finishing 4th, slipped ahead of her, eventually taking charge of the 10th spot on the Leaderboard. Easton defeated Atwell 8-4 in the second round of the event’s Stage 2, just ahead of sending Tzu-Chien Wei to the loss side 8-6 in a winners’ side quarterfinal. Two years ago, at the old Borderline Billiards, Easton had chalked up her best finish at a WPBA event (5th), until this past weekend, when her 4th place finish became the best.
The Borderline Brunswick Invitational began earlier in the week with a Stage 1, double-elimination bracket with 48 players. That number was reduced to 16; eight from the winners’ side of the bracket and eight from the loss side. Those 16 joined 32 seeded competitors in the final Stage 2.
Fisher’s path through the final field of 48 went through Tina Larsen 8-1, April Larson 8-3, and Kaylee McIntosh 8-3, to arrive at winners’ side semifinal against Pia Filler, who was one of the 16 who advanced from Stage 1. Kristina Tkach, in the meantime, got by Laura Smith (0) and Susan Williams (5), before meeting and defeating one of the event’s two youngest competitors, Sofia “Pink Dagger” Mast (3) and drawing the other, the aforementioned Savannah “Roadrunner” Easton in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Fisher and Tkach gave up two racks each to Filler and Easton and met for the first time in the hot seat match. Tkach claimed it 8-4 and waited to see who’d be coming back from the semifinals.
On the loss side, Filler drew Tzu-Chien Wei, who’d followed her winners’ side quarterfinal loss to the “Road Runner” with victories over Loree Jon Brown 8-6 and April Larson 8-4. The “Road Runner” picked up Kristina Zlateva, who’d followed her loss to “The Pink Dagger” with a four-pack of wins, three of which went double hill; versus Margarita Fefilova (DH), Kennedy Meyman (1), Kaylee McIntosh (DH), and Brittany Bryant (DH).
Easton stopped Zlateva’s run 8-2 and advanced to the quarterfinals. There’s no telling what could have happened, had Filler not defeated Tzu-Chien Wei 8-4 and advanced to join Easton in those quarterfinals. Pre-supposing that Tzu-Chien would have defeated Easton in what might have been their quarterfinal (by no means a “given”), it would have put the WPBA’s top two competitors face-to-face in the semifinals.
As it turned out, Filler downed Easton 8-1 in those quarterfinals to earn a rematch against Fisher. Filler did a little better in the rematch, but Fisher defeated her a second time (8-4) to earn her own rematch against Tkach.
It looked, right out of the gate, as if there were going to be no stopping Kelly Fisher in the final. She broke the first rack and dropped four balls. And then, shooting at the 8-ball, she overshot her ‘position’ with the cue ball and then, shooting at an oblique angle, failed to drop the 9-ball. Tkach did and followed by dropping three on her own break, and running to the 9-ball. She missed the relatively easy shot, giving Fisher the opportunity for a quick ‘payback.’ She took it and tied the score.
Winning off of each other’s break became something of a habit as the two of them fought back and forth to a 3-3 tie. Fisher broke and ran rack #7, starting a three-match run. Tkach fought back, winning three to tie it again at 6-6. Fisher took the lead back, off of a three-ball break and run, then took advantage of a scratch on Tkach’s break to go up by two and then, reached the hill, ahead by three at 9-6.
Tkach kept it interesting by pulling within two in rack #16. Fisher, though, a hard person to deny at this stage of a match, completed her trip to the winners’ circle with a final rack to claim the first Borderline Brunswick Invitational title.
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