Two Women’s 10 Ball events on tap in Newport Mall
From October 31 to November 7, the atrium of Newport Mall in Pasay City will become the epicenter of Women's Pool. Not one, but two Dragon Promotions events for the world's top lady shooters will be taking place there.
The fifth Yalin Women's World 10 Ball Championship runs from November 1 to 4, and Korean Ga Young Kim will attempt to defend the title she won last year over Chen Si Ming of China in the final match.
Chen will be there to redeem herself, and so will the leading lights of Women's Pool, including former champs Rubilen Amit of the Philippines, Jasmin Ouschan of Austria, Jennifer Barretta of the USA, and England's Kelly Fisher.
Also gunning for the US$21,000 top prize is Korea's Yu Ram Cha, Taipei's Penny Tsai, England's Allison Fisher, China's Pan Xiao Ting, and others, like Mirjana Grujicic of Venezuela.
American legend Vivian Villareal, nicknamed the Texas Tornado, is also in the hunt. It's her first ever trip to the Philippines.
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Two other Filipinas, Iris Ranola and Cheska Centeno, sailed through the qualifiers in Star Billiards and will join the tournament's stage 2.
The 48 players will be divided into round-robin groups of six where they play races-to-six. The top three proceed to the knockout stage, with the group winners seeded directly into the round of sixteen. The group second and third placers play one round of knockout matches to join them.
The early knockout stages are races to eight, the semis race-to-nine, and the final a race to ten.
According to Charlie Williams of Dragon Promotions almost all the players are in the top three of their respective countries.
Yalin Billiards of China, represented at the press con by owner Eric Ding, is once again the title sponsor and table supplier. A quick check of the pearly white tables at the Newport Mall Atrium revealed that the pockets are tight, just barely two balls wide, and with the relatively deep fall-off of the slate, should make for challenging conditions for the players.
After the world 10 Ball champion is crowned on the fourth, the Jbet.com Queens Cup takes over in the same venue and runs from the fifth to the seventh. The new event is a team showdown pitting an East team composed of Amit, Kim, Chen and Tsai versus a West side comprised of Ouschan, Allison Fisher, Kelly Fisher, and Villareal.
Both events will be aired live on Studio 23 in the afternoons starting at two pm from November 1 to 7.
OB Cues is the official cue, and company head Shane Sinnott was in attendance at the press conference. OB is one of the fastest-growing brands in the Pool world, with 74% growth this year.
Officials at Resorts World, which runs Newport Mall, could not contain their delight at hosting this event.
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“I'm like a kid in Disneyland” said Martin Paz, Resorts World's Chief Integrated Marketing Officer.
“This is both a treat for me and good for business, since it invites foot traffic.” Paz is a longtime Pool enthusiast and buddy of former world champion Mika Immonen.
Resorts World is sponsoring another big sporting event in a few weeks, the Resorts World Manila Masters Golf Tournament, which tees off on November 14 and features a purse of US$750,000.
Other sponsors include Aramith, the official ball, Championship cloth, Tweeten, suppliers of the official chalk which is Master, Star Paper Corporation, and the Philippine Star newspaper.
This is the fifth edition of this event, which has taken place in Metro Manila every year since 2009.
Follow the ABS-CBN Sports Twitter @abscbnsports for airing times. The event website is www.womensworld10ball.com . Follow Bob on Twitter @PassionateFanPH.
