Seoul, Korea- Day 3 is completed at the Korea Pro Tour Championships with only 4 men and 4 women remaining. Defending Champion Charlie Williams (USA) moved on to the Final 16 and looked good with a 10-6 win over Korea #5 Kun Jae Lee and was cruising to the semi finals as he led 7-2 over Filipino Jundel Mazon. A skid on an easy 2 ball left Williams in his chair for 5 racks and only 2 more kick shots as Mazon played perfect to win 10-7. Mazon had earlier eliminated roomate Carlo Biado 10-2. Thorsten Hohmann re-matched with Goh Takami for his 3rd encounter with the Japanese tiny terror. Takami came in with 2 wins on Hohmann but this time Hohmann was ready and played a brilliant match to score a convincing 10-6 win and move into the quarter finals. Korea legend "Godzilla" Shin Young Park fell to the steady hand of Korea #4 Hee Chul Kim 10-3 .
The big story on the men's side was the fateful path of USA's Mike Davis. Davis had finished a respectable 3rd place at the UPA event in Phoenix, which led to Davis forfeiting his first match after a bye because he was en route from Phoenix to Korea. His opponent on the loser's side was also absent from the event as a no show and Davis luckily advanced. Davis arrived at the Novotel venue 45 mins before his match time and quickly washed up and went downstairs to win his match. 10 hours later, Davis started off his next day of play with a 9-8 scare over unranked Korean pro. Two more wins put the "Iron Man" into the final 16.
On Day 3, Davis was re-seeded at #14 for the final 16 players and started off playing against Raj Hundal (IND). Davis led early at 4-0, then Hundal came back at 4-4. The Davis jet scooted away to win 10-6. Davis still didnt feel he had played enough yet and went onto practice straight pool while waiting for his next match. He then destroyed Korea's Hee Chul Kim 10-3 to advance to the semi-finals, giving him a guaranteed 3rd place finish and a TV match.
"I am definitely lucky I drew into a bracket where the player didn't show up and I got that bye, too. I just made my first match, got some rest, had a hill hill win, and now I'm cruising along. This is the best I've ever done in an Asian event." Said the soft spoken giant Iron Man of pool.
Ricky Zerna (PHI) looks to be on his way back to the finals with a 10-7 win over Japan's Hayato Hijikata in the quarters. Takenaka of Japan eliminated Hohmann to advance with a 10-7 score. At 7-7 Hohmann broke perfect, but an unlucky kiss sent the cueball to the side pocket and Takenaka ran the next 2 racks.
The women's division continued with Taiwan's duo of disaster Yuan Chun Lin and Chieh Yu Chou tearing up their opponents to reach the semi-finals unscathed and seeded #1 and #2 respectively. Mika Muneta JPN showed heart with 7-4 and 7-5 wins over Korea's top women #1 Yun Mi Lim and Valley Forge Women's Champion Bora Jung to reach the semi-finals. Eun Ji Park KOR #2 and Yu Ram Cha KOR #3 had a dog fight ending in a 7-6 decision for Park to advance and eliminate the former Korea Womens Champion.
The Men's Semi Finals and Womens Semi Finals continues tomorrow for the final day televised matches for MBC ESPN.
Dragon Promotions 4th Annual Korea Pro Pool Tour Championships is sponsored by MBC ESPN, Ra Beauty Core Salons, Novotel Doksan, Predator Cues, Poison Cues. The official equipment used are Min Tables and Vigma Balls.
