Szu-Ting Kuo (TPE) Foto: EPBF/AMM
Thursday, 06 December 2012 In a real thriller match, Szu-Ting Kuo (TPE) remained the upper hand over Kamila Khodjaeva (BEL) with a close 7:6 victory.
Both girls met in the winner’s qualification round. Both of them had already two victories under their belt. It promised to be an exciting match. Kuo had some advantages from the very beginning. She seemed more secure in what she was doing. She was able to gain a two rack advantage over Khodjaeva and maintain that over a long time. 3:1, 4:2, 5:3 and even 6:4 was her lead in the meantime. But Khodjaeva, last year’s runner-up, is known to be a fighter who never gives up. She won the 11th rack by running I out and closed the gap to 5:6. In the next rack she even forced Kuo to commit three consecutive fouls and tied the match at hill-hill, 6:6. In the 13th and final rack, Khodjaeva had the break shot. She made three balls and had a promising layout. She ran all balls and had a good position for the 9-ball. But to the dismay of all of her supporters, she missed the deciding 9-ball. However, she got lucky and did not leave a shot for Kuo. The Asian tried to play safe but left a makeable shot for Khodjaeva. Kamila Khodjaeva had a second chance… and dogged the 9-ball again. Now Kuo got to the table and finished the match, winning 7:6. Kuo is now qualified for the semi-final while Khodjaeva needs one more win on the loser’s side to join her there.
Other notable results include defending Champion Oliwia Czuprynska (POL) losing to Karen Garcia (NIC) with 5:7. She also needs to win another match on the loser’s side in order to get to the semi-finals.
In the wheelchair division, no upsets took place. Defending Champion Jouni Tahti (FIN) clearly defeated Fred Dinsmore (IRE) 7:2 while Henrik Larsson (SWE) won his match 7:4 over Tony Southern (GBR).
In the juniors division, Meshaal-Turkki Al-Ali (QAT) ousted Raphael Wahl (GER) with 9:6. Berk Mehmetcik (TNC) defeated Shonosuke Komiya with 9:7. Jui-An Hsu (TPE) ended all hopes of Ignacio Garcia (ARG) 9:6.
The event is hosted by the European Governing Body for Pool, the European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) in conjunction with the WPA and organized by International Billiard Promotion (IBP). For further information and reference please go to the federation website www.wpapoolonline.com , follow us on twitter @EPBF_News or contact our press office.
