Bojana Sarac
She’s from Serbia and being more of a ‘known’ competitor in Europe, Bojana Sarac may have surprised some of her American counterparts this past weekend (Dec. 13-15) when she came from the loss side to down Bulgaria’s Kristina Zlateva in the finals and win the $40,000-added, WPBA’s Dr. Pool/Jacoby Tour Championships in Rothschild, WI. It became her second (known) major title, since winning the Predator Group Women’s Euro Tour stop at Dynamic Billiards’ Ladies Treviso (Italy) Open last November. She entered our AZBilliards’ database in August of 2021, which remains her best (recorded) earnings year. Among the Europeans who were not surprised at her win in Wisconsin was Kelly Fisher, who’d battled her in the finals and eventually won the Predator Austria Women’s Open in October of that year.
The Dr. Pool/Jacoby Tour Championships drew a total of 80 competitors to the Central Wisconsin Expo Center in Rotschild and played out in two stages. The opening Stage 1 featured 48 un-seeded competitors, who played in a double-elimination bracket until the final eight on each side of that bracket advanced to compete in a second, double-elimination bracket that came loaded with 16 previously-seeded and 16 unseeded competitors. The 32 who’d waited for the conclusion of Stage 1 to begin competing, happened to be the top 32 in the WPBA rankings. Sarac, whose win catapulted her from well below the ‘top 32’ to #21 (after the win), went undefeated through the Stage 1 bracket, downing Shanna Lewis and Emilyn Callado, both 7-3, with a shutout over Shanelle Lorraine in between them. The field of 16 that advanced to Stage 2 was evenly split between American (Callado, teenager Jordan Helfrey, Sandy Cheng, Tina Larson, Pam Kelly, Laura Smith, Kim Housman) and foreign (Europe, Asia and Far East) competitors.
In her eight-match march to the title, Sarac squared off against three of the WPBA’s top 10; one of them, Zlateva, twice. Racing to 8, she opened Stage 2 with an 8-1 victory over Caroline (“Ka-pow”) Pao, and followed that with wins over Janet Atwell (3), Japan’s Miina Tani (2), Taipei’s Fan Yu Hsuan (5) and drew Bean (Meng-Hsia) Hung in one of the winners’ side semifinals.
Zlateva’s opponents, in the meantime, kept getting closer and closer to catching her. She started with a win over Olivia Cheng (3) and followed up with victories over Nguyen Bich Tram (4) and Chihiro Kawahara (5) to draw Margarita Fefilova in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Sure enough, Fefilova got a rack closer than Zlateva’s previous opponents, but “The Zlayer,” as she’s known, persevered 8-6 and advanced to the hot seat match. She was joined by Sarac, who’d sent Hung to the loss side 8-4. In the hot seat match versus Sarac, Zlateva stopped the ‘one-rack-closer’ pattern, by dispatching Sarac off to the semifinals 8-6 and claiming the hot seat.
By the time the loss side had whittled down to its final 8, in the battles for 9th/12th, at around 10 p.m. on Saturday night, it was still loaded with potentially significant ‘spoilers.’ Briana Miller had eliminated Sofia Mast as Kristina Tkach had gotten by Chihiro Kawahara, both 8-4. Kelly Fisher, who’d eliminated Allison Fisher in her previous match 8-4, had defeated Pia Filler 8-4. And Fan Yu Hsuan, who lost her winners’ side quarterfinal match to Sarac, began her loss-side trip with something of an ‘upset’ over Tzu-Chien Wei 8-5.
Hsuan had another surprise up her sleeve, as she advanced to down Filler 8-6. Miller, in the meantime, was busy with something of an ‘upset’ of her own, eliminating Kawahara 8-5.
The action moved on to Sunday with Miller facing off against Bean Hung, who (presumably) had enjoyed a good night’s sleep following her loss to Sarac. So, too, with Fefilova, whose loss to Zlateva set her up against Hsuan.
Fefilova stopped Hsuan’s loss-side progress with an 8-2 win and advanced to the quarterfinals. Hung joined her after eliminating Miller 8-5. The quarterfinals and hot seat match went off at about the same time, but the quarterfinals finished an hour earlier. Fefilova eliminated Hung 8-4 and waited for Zlateva to claim the hot seat.
The semifinal match between Fefilova and Sarac was the 11th and last double-hill match of the 126 matches played in Stage 2 of the Dr. Pool/Jacoby Tour Championships. Two of them involved 14-year-old Savannah Easton, who defeated Emilyn Callado on the loss side and two rounds later, was herself eliminated by Briana Miller. In two others, Loree Jon Brown eliminated April Larson and Monica Webb defeated stream announcer Lonnie-Fox Raymond.
It was Sarac who prevailed in the semifinals to earn her second shot at Zlateva, waiting for her in the hot seat. Though likely reluctant to renew the pattern that she’d established with her previous opponents, what Zlateva didn’t expect was that the next racks-against figure, in the finals, would indeed reach ‘7,’ but they’d be her racks against Sarac. Sarac claimed the Dr. Pool/Jacoby Tour Championship title 10-7.
WPBA representatives thanked the ownership and staff at the Central Wisconsin Expo Center for their hospitality, as well as Dr. Pool Promotions and Jacoby Custom Cues. They also extended thanks to Presenting Sponsors Viking Cues, Olhausen Billiards, and Brunswick; Titanium Sponsors Diamond Billiard Products and Aramith Balls; Platinum Sponsors Simonis Cloth, How Professional Tips and Cues, Big Family Custom Creations, www.icitraining.com, Kamui Chalk, and Castillo Handmade Leather Products; Diamond Sponsors RJH Custom Cues, www.digitalpool.com, and Perfect Rack; and Gold Sponsors Iowa City Metro Pool League, Holt Family Dental Care, and Iowa City Women’s 8-Ball League.
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