Kelly Fisher will face Yuki Hiraguchi on Wednesday
The first round of play in the single elimination final bracket of the Women’s Poison VG 9-Ball Championship is complete, and the final four players for Wednesday’s second round is now known.
The first match of the day was between Germany’s Ina Kaplan, who won day three of the round robin stage, and Turkey’s Eylul Kibaroglu, who was the runner-up on day one of round robin play. The single elimination matches were a different format with players facing the ghost in alternating racks, racing to four racks ran. They played a best two out of three format match to determine winners.
The first set saw Kaplan and Kibaroglu tied at 3-3, both needing one rack to win the set. Neither player saw success in their first tries, but Kaplan missed a 7-ball in the next rack and Kibaroglu ran out for the 4-3 win.
Kaplan took an early 3-1 lead in the second set and then stalled, eventually holding on for 4-3 win. Kaplan still had issues in the third set and it was Kibaroglu scoring a 4-2 win to move on.
The second match of the day was between day one winner Kristina Zlateva from Bulgaria, facing day three runner-up Kelly Fisher.
This match was a true battle with both players tied at 4-4 in the first set. They then took turns breaking and trying to run racks to determine a set winner. They were both successful in their next attempts and were tied at 5-5. The next round went the same way for a 6-6 tie and then again in the next round for 7-7. One thing that the commentators Neight Mindham and Mark White both noticed in these racks was that Fisher appeared much more confident and was running racks with a lot more ease than Zlateva. That finally caught up with Zlateva in the next sets of racks as Fisher ran her rack but Zlateva was unable to get out and lost the set 8-7.
The second set went a lot like the first, with both players tied at 4-4 and alternating to see who would fail to hold serve. This time, it was Fisher unable to get out and dropping the set 7-6.
With the first two sets so close, fans in the stream were expecting another close set to determine the day’s final winner, but it turned out to be anti-climactic as Zlateva could not match Fisher’s run at 2-2, losing any control in the set. With the 4-3 lead, Fisher just had to break and run the next rack for the win and she calmly did just that for the 4-2 win.
Wednesday play will see Fisher facing day two winner, Japan’s Yuki Hiraguchi and Kibaroglu taking on day four winner Margaret Fefilova. Those matches will see the ladies facing off in races to five racks against the ghost in the same “two out of three” format.
Play begins at 9:00 AM Eastern Time and can be followed online at https://www.facebook.com/CueItUpPodcast
