Zheng Yubo
Gareth Potts fell just short of another Chinese Pool title with his second place finish at the Chinese Pool International Challenge held in Fushun China.
The event’s sixteen player invitational field was comprised of eight Chinese players and eight “international” players. Potts was joined by such notables as Darren Appleton, Chris Melling, Albin Ouschan, Jeffrey Ignacio and Carlo Biado in the “international” field, while the Chinese contingent included such notables as Zheng Yubo, Yang Fan and Li Hewen.
Appleton, Melling and Ouschan all failed to make the final eight. Melling and Ouschan met on the one loss side after losses to Yang Fan and Chu Bingjie. Melling eliminated Ouschan 9-7 and was then eliminated in his next match 9-4 by Potts.
Potts and Ignacio were the only “international” players to make the top 8. Ignacio defeated Li Hewen 9-3 and then sent Potts to the one loss side 9-8. In the single elimination final eight, he was defeated by Li Hewen 11-5.
Potts, a three time Joy Chinese Pool Masters winner, defeated Biado 8-5, lost to Ignacio 9-8 and then defeated Melling 9-4 to make the final eight. From there, he defeated Yang Fan 11-3 and Zhang Kunpeng 13-10 to earn his place in the finals.
Zheng Yubo won the event with an undefeated record after wins over Zhao Ruliang, Appleton, Qiu Paomou and Li Hewen.
Zheng started the final match by taking a 2-0 lead, but Potts then won four straight racks to take the lead. Zheng regained the lead at 5-4 just before the first official timeout. Zheng extended his lead to 7-4 after the timeout and held a 10-8 lead at the second official 5 minute timeout. Both players took a less aggressive approach after the second timeout, leading to another rack for Potts who trailed 10-9. After losing that nineteenth rack, Zheng returned to his dominating aggressive style and closed the match out at 13-10 for first place.
