It is much too early in this event to pick any favorites so let’s just review the interesting match ups and resulting situations. Thorsten Hohmann is on the one-loss side early after losing his first match 9-5 to Yu Lung Chang. Now he has to square off against Tomasz Kaplan to stay alive. Corey Deuel had a bad day against Chris Melling as he found himself on the wrong side of a final 9-2 score.
Rodney Morris is in a tough spot. He lost his second round match to Niels Feijen 9-3 and now must defeat former World Champion Karl Boyes in order to make it to the final bracket. Shane Van Boening is exhibiting his usual muscle as he pelted Le Hewen 9-1 to win his opener.
As of this moment four males have made it through to the final bracket. They are: Mika Immonen, Can Wang, Niels Feijen, and Khanh Nguyen.
On the ladies side Jennifer Barretta lost her first matche. She lost to Yichen Liu 7-4 and now awaits a match on the sudden-death side with Zhiting Wu. Allison Fisher won her first match 7-2 against Jing Wu and will next face Kyoko Sone.
Siming Chen and Xiao-Ting Pao will face one another at the end of the winners bracket in their group. The fans will get to watch two World 9-Ball Champions square off for the honor of remaining undefeated and a better seeding in the final group.
Kelly Fisher remains pristine as she won her first match 7-4 against Xinmei Liu and now will face Ziglan Wei for the opportunity too retain an unblemished record.
This is just the first day of the event and the players are working their way through the opening group stages to find their way into the final single-elimination chart. We should have the final charts possibly as early as Friday so check back often for news.
You may follow the event via live scoring at the WPA Website.
