Daryl Peach
One day of play is complete in the final stage of the Sanlig China Billiard World Championship, taking place in Yu Shan China, and the field has been cut in half in both the men’s and women’s divisions.
Thursday play saw players separated into four divisions (Chinese Men, International Men, Chinese Women and International Women), and the goal of the day being to win two matches in order to advance to the single elimination brackets that will be contested on the final three days.
With the Chinese players in their own brackets, the theme of the day was Snooker Stars vs English 8-Ball Stars, and in this event it was 8-Ball experience that won the day more times than not.
#3 ranked Snooker Star Neil Robertson had a chance to qualify for the single elimination stage after dropping his first match to Yu Lung Chang 9-8. Robertson followed that up with a 9-6 win over #12 ranked Snooker Star Jun Hui Ding, but failed to show up for his final match against Scotsman Scott Gillespie, allowing Gillespie to advance.
Other players that made it through to the single elimination stages with one loss were Daryl Peach, former World Snooker Champion Mark Williams, 2016 Player of the year Pin Yi Ko, Lee Van Cortezza and John Morra (who survived a tough match with John Higgins to end his day).
International players who took a more direct (undefeated) route to the final stage included reigning champion Darren Appleton (with dominating wins over Judd Trump and Thorsten Hohmann), Reigning English 8-Ball World Champion Mick Hill and former World 8-Ball Champion Wu-Jia Qing.
The ladies division saw WPA #1 ranked Ga-Young Kim advance undefeated with wins over Iris Ranola and Wei Tzu-Chien. Joining Kim with undefeated paths to the single elimination stages were Shin Mei Liu, Si-Ting Guo and Russian Anastsiia Nechaeva.
WPBA star Kelly Fisher made her way to the single elimination stages with one loss, after recovering from a second round loss to Guo. Fisher eliminated Belgium’s Kamila Khodjaeva in her final match of the night.
The players are now playing in single elimination brackets until a winner is crowned on Sunday. Follow all of the action with our online brackets and streaming coverage at http://www.azbilliards.com/tours_and_events/314-china-billiard-world-championships/7141-sanlig-china-billiard-world-championship-2016/live/
