Amy Yu & Matt Klein
Amy Yu finished the Tri-State Tour’s 2017/2018 season as the #5-ranked female on the tour. She finished that tour-year, which changes mid-summer, as a C+ competitor. Now, a little shy of midway through the Tri-State’s 2018/2019 season, she has maintained that fifth spot on the Player of the Year standings among women, but she’s moved up a notch, playing now as a B competitor. She ended the 2017/2018 season as the highest-ranked female among all C+ players. Midway through the 2018/2019 season, she’s the highest ranked female among all of the tour’s B players.
On Sunday, Dec. 2, at the tail end of what has been, to date, her best earnings year at the tables (split evenly between appearances on the Tri-State and Predator Pro Am tours), Yu came back from a hot seat loss to down fellow B competitor, Matt Klein in the finals of a $1,000-added Tri-State stop that drew 34 entrants to Cue Bar in Bayside (Queens), NY.
Following victories over three Tri-State veteran players - Mike Strassberg, Bob Toomey and Tri V. Chau – Yu advanced to a winners’ side semifinal against a fourth Tri-State veteran, and current #1-ranked B+ player on the tour, Jaydev Zaveri. Klein, in the meantime, squared off against another of the tour’s prominent women, Michele Brotons (currently, the tour’s #2-ranked female).
Yu sent Zaveri to the loss side 7-4 and, in the hot seat match, faced Klein, who’d defeated Brotons 7-5. In their first of two, Klein gave up only a single rack and claimed the hot seat.
On the loss side, Zaveri jumped right into the quarterfinals, when Josh Friedberg, who’d just won two straight double hill matches, against Eugene Ok and Tri V. Chau, was forced to forfeit. Brotons, picked up Nathaniel Raimondo, who’d defeated Thomas Schreiber and Carlos Serrano, both 7-3. Raimondo joined Zaveri for the quarterfinals after surviving a double hill fight against Brotons.
Zaveri took it one more step. He defeated Raimondo 7-5 in those quarterfinals to earn himself a re-match against Yu in the semifinals. Yu, though, repeated her 7-4, winners’ side semifinal victory over him and got her own re-match against Klein. The finals went back and forth and seemed destined for a double hill showdown, but Yu pulled out in front at the end and claimed her first Tri-State title 9-7 over Klein.
Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at Cue Bar, as well as sponsors Ozone Billiards, Sterling-Gaming, Kamui Tips, Phil Capelle, BlueBook Publishing, Human Kinetics, Pool & Billiards, Professor Q Ball, Bender Cues, and DIGICUE OB. The next stop on the Tri-State Tour, scheduled for Sunday, Dec. 16, will be hosted by Steinway Billiards in Astoria (Queens), NY.
