On January 24, The 15th Kansai 9 Ball Open was held as the 1st JPBA official tour stop in 2005.
All four of the quarterfinal matches were Japan vs Philippines. Kunihiko Takahashi, Goua Matsuno, Tasuku Nishio, and Takeaki Matsuno were all defeated leading to an all Philippines semifinals.
Semifinal's results:
Orcullo 9:4 Lining
Kiamco 9:6 Gallego
The final was Orcullo vs. Kiamco. In the final the format was changed from winner's break to alternate break. Orcullo lost twice on his break and that was the difference in this match as Kiamco defeated Orcullo by 9:6. The entire purse of 2 million yen was split between the 4 Philippines players. It was a terrible way to start the new year for the JPBA men. Kun-Fang Lee (Chinese Taipei), Young-Hwa Jeong (Korea) and Sin-Young Park (Korea) lost in the qualifying tourney held the day before.
The Ladies Open was held at the same time: In the semifinal Yukiko Hamanishi defeated Kyoko Sone 7-5, Jui-Fang Fan (Chinese Taipei) defeated Akio Otani 7-3.
The final was Japan vs. Taiwan. Hamanishi is the current No 2 player in Japan. In 11th rack, Hamanishi with ball-in-hand cleared balls and defeated Fan by 7:4. She has started smoothly this year for the top ranking of JPBA. Xiao-Ting Pan(China), 3rd in 2004 Women World Championship and Sung-Hyun Joung (Korea) lost in qualifying tourney held the day before.
Men's results:
1st Warren Kiamco $10,000
2nd Dennis Orcullo $5,000
3rd Antonio Lining/Ramil Gallego $ 2,500
Women's results:
1st Yukiko Hamanishi $4,000
2nd Jui-Fang Fan $1,500
3rd Kyoko Sone/Akio Otani $750
