Newcomer Chenman stuns field for Weert Open Win

Lee Chenman

Proving that if at first you don't succeed you have to keep trying, relative unknown Lee Chenman earned his way in the 2005 Open Weert 9-Ball event and then went on to win the first prize of $4600.

Chenman was not one of the invited players, so he had to earn his spot in the event the old fashioned way. He had to win it. Losing 5-1 to Wendy Jans in a qualifying match on Saturday, Chenman was not deterred and re-entered a Sunday morning qualifier. From there, he won 4 straight matches and made it to the last 32 players standing.

On Sunday the last 32 players changed to a single elimination format. Big names in the last 32 were: Francisco Bustamante - Niels Feijen - Mika Immonen - Ralf Souquet - Oliver Ortmann - Nick van den Berg - Alex Lely - Thomas Engert - Marcus Chamat - Fabio Petroni - Rico Diks and Andreas Roskowsky.

The first round on Sunday featured three major upsets; Marcus Chamat lost 8-7 to German Marcus Buck, Ralf Souquet lost 8-6 to Jesse Thehu from Holland and Samir Kadur from Spain (who recently won the Eurotour event in Denmark) beat Thomas Engert 8-5. The most exciting first round match saw Mika Immonen beat Dutchman Niels Feijen in a nailbiter 8-7.

In the Last 16 almost all the favourites won, Nick van den Berg scraped thru beating Rico Diks 9-8 and the most surpising match was Chenman beating Oliver Ortmann 9-8.

The results of the last 9 were:
Mika Immonen - Francisco Bustamante 9-5
Nick van den Berg - Fabio Petroni 9-8
Lee Chenman - Thorsten Shober 9-7
Alex Lely - Jorn Kaplan 9-5

Semi Final
Nick van den berg - Mika Immonen 9-5
Lee Chenman - Alex Lely 9-8

In the Final Lee Chenman beat Nick van den Berg 10-5 and claimed the 6th Open Weert 9-ball 2005.

Francisco Bustamante won the "special event" Ringgame 10-ball and 8000 dollar.

Payouts
1st Lee Chenman $4600
2nd Nick van den Berg $2600
3rd/4th Alex lely / Mika Immonen $1300
5th/8th Francisco Bustamante - Fabio Petroni - Thorsten Shober - Jorn Kaplan $650

In the womens division it was Dutch Kynthia Orfanidis beating Niels Feijen's girlfriend Katrine Jensen from Denmark 6-5 and claimed the title and the $900 first prize in a field of 46 women.