Karen Corr and Ga-Young Kim
With a hill-hill win over Karen Corr, Ga-Young Kim has successfully defended her title at the WPBA Women's US Open 9-Ball Championship.
Kim made her way through the double elimination stage of the event with three convincing victories; Veronique Menard 9-2, Dawn Hopkins 9-5 and Monica Webb 9-4.
When the players re-drew into the final sixteen, Kim's opponent was Monica Webb again. This time, the match went hill-hill, but it was still Kim with the win. A 7-3 win over Gerda Hofstatter on Saturday, gave Kim her place in the final four.
Kim's first opponent on Sunday was Julie Kelly. Kelly had earned her place in the final four with wins over Xiao-Ting Pan and Kyoko Sone, but she had no answer for Kim's game on this day as Kim took complete control of the match and won 7-2.
Kim's opponent in the finals was Karen Corr. Corr had to be full of confidence going into the finals, after shutting out Vivian Villarreal 7-0 in her previous match. That confidence would be short-lived as Kim lost the first game, but won the next three for a quick 3-1 lead. Corr fought back to tie the match at 3-3, but Kim then broke and ran rack seven to regain the lead at 4-3. Two racks later, it was Kim on the hill at 6-3. Corr had not gotten this far in the tourney to just hand the trophy to Kim though. Karen dug down deep and won the next two racks for a 6-5 scoreline with Corr breaking. Although Corr had struggled with her break all match, it came through for her when she need it, as she made a ball and ran the rack for 6-6. Unfortunately for Corr, Kim's break came through for her too. Kim made a ball on the break and navigated a tough rack for the table run and her third career US Open title.
