East Brunswick, New Jersey- Day 2 has concluded in the first stage of the Predator World Straight Pool Championship, the Round Robin. 64 players were fighting for positioning for Wednesday's final day, while a handful of players have already secured their spots for the cut of 32 players in the next round. USA's Johnny Archer and Finland's Mika Immonen are thus far undefeated with 5 wins each. Archer gave NYC fan favorite Steve Lipsky a loss while Immonen (FIN) breezed through Mike Davis (USA) to guarantee his spot. Bustamante outplayed Souquet to stay undefeated.
Other players looking good to qualify include Defending Champion Oliver Ortmann (GER) who came back from a 75 to -1 deficit on USA's Mike Dechaine. Ortmann dropped an opening round against Allen Hopkins, but has since won three matches and he has the players with the worst records left. Legendary Mike Sigel (USA) showed 14.1 prince Thorsten Hohmann some old school magic as Sigel won 100-61.
Sigel was then defeated by Charlie Williams (USA), who has been the hothand on tour the past two weeks. Williams was down 74 to 11, but made a great comeback to 74-72, and then won a safety exchange which forced Sigel to take 3 fouls and left Williams an opening in which he took advantage and ran out 100-57. Sigel likely needs one win, where two will guarantee him tomorrow and he will be a big favorite in those matches. Mike Davis (USA) needs two wins and will be playing the two statistically weakest players tomorrow.
Raj Hundal (IND) looked in danger today but he managed to win two matches including a win over Cory Deuel (USA). He also earlier defeated Earl Herring (USA), but suffered a loss to Nick Van DenBerg (NED). Hundal must win his two matches Wednesday to qualify.
The women are all struggling, with the big surprise Jasmin Ouschan who has not been performing well, posting losses and low scores of 36 and 34. Today she lost to Puerto Rico's Alan Rolon and tomorrow she faces elimination if she loses any of her two matches. Liz Ford has little chance of qualifying with four losses already. Gerda Hofstatter also has a tough road after dropping back to back matches against Harriman and Maidhof. Yu Ram Cha is in optimitistic position with two wins and two losses, and she has already played her tougher opponents already.
Matches begin at 9:00am Wednesday morning and will be covered throughout the day by azbilliards.com with brackets and updates
Fans and players can still reserve rooms at Hilton East Brunswick at 1-732-828-2000
The room code for the event is "POL" There are still limited amount of rooms available.
Tickets can be purchased in advanced at www.dragonpromotions.com or in person at Amsterdam Billiards in NYC or Comet Billiards in NJ.
The 2008 Predator World Straight Pool Championship is proudly sponsored by Dr.Michael Fedak of NYC, Joel Schapiro of NYC, The Predator Group, Diamond Billiard Products, Aramith Balls, and Simonis Cloth. For more information on player registration, sponsorship, or if you would like to submit a comment, please email worldstraightpoolchampionships@gmail.com or contact Dragon Promotions at 1-407-782-4978.
For more details on the World 14.1 Championship go to www.dragonpromotions.com or email worldstraightpoolchampionships@gmail.com
