Mike Zuglan, Fu Che-Wei, Lin Ta-Li and Snookers owner Steve Goulding
The team of players from Chinese Taipei did not have a good trip to the United States for the International 9-Ball Open, with Ko Ping-Chung’s 5th place finish as the best performance by one of the group’s players. Their results at the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour’s Ocean State 9-Ball Championship on November 9th - 10th at Snookers in Providence RI, was much better. Five of the six Chinese Taipei players cashed in the Ocean State event, with four of them in the top six spots.
Saturday matches narrowed the field of seventy-three players down to just twelve. The winner’s side came down to Fu Che-Wei, Lin Ta-Li, Suad Kantaravic, and recent Junior Invitational 9-Ball Champion Lukas Fracasso-Verner. Both players from Chinese Taipei then advanced with Fu beating Verner 9-2 and Lin over Kantaravic 9-6. Lin then defeated Fu 9-3 for the hot-seat.
Sunday matches on the one-loss side saw Hsu Kai-Lun eliminating Mike Giurleo and Frankie Hernandez before losing a 7-3 decision to Kantaravic. The other half of the one-loss side saw Chang Yu-Lung over Ron Casanzio and Chiang Chen-Yu before being eliminated in 5th place by Verner. Verner sent Kantaravic to the seats in 4th place with a hill-hill win but then dropped the semi-final match to Fu 7-2.
The all Chinese Taipei final match went one set with Lin repeating his hot-seat win over Fu 9-5 for first place.
Sunday’s second chance tournament was won by Francisco Cabral, who went undefeated and didn’t allow an opponent more than one rack against him all day. Cabral defeated Mike Salerno 3-1 for the hot-seat and 3-1 again in the finals.
The next Joss NE 9-Ball Tour stop will be the Turning Stone Classic XXXIII on January 9th - 12th. That event is now full. Any player who didn’t get their entry paid can contact Mike Zuglan to get on the waiting list.
