11-Year-Old Advances to Single-Elimination Phase of Women’s World 10-Ball Championship
by Edward Asistin
Everybody who wanted to know who was in and who was out had to wait until the very last match of the group stage of the Women’s World 10-Ball Championship was complete. The very last match was played between Yu Ram Cha (Korea) and Lyndall Hulley (Australia). Hulley needed to win her final match to advance into the single-elimination phase of the tournament and compete for a top prize of $20,000 USD.
11-year-old Gillian Go thrilled the crowd with her play to make it into the single elimination phase of the tournament.
Just minutes before the conclusion of the aforementioned match, 11-year-old Gillian Go (Philippines) won a hill-hill battle against Tina Meraglio (US) under the pressure of playing on the TV table to give Go a 3-2 record in her group. If Yu Ram Cha would have lost against Hulley, all three of them would have had a 3-2 record, and Go would have lost the tiebreaker to the other two by just one point. But in the end Yu Ram Cha defeated Hulley by a score of 5-3, making Go the big story of the tournament thus far.
There were several other matches played on day three that had significant meaning.
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THE HEARTBREAK
Qualifier Mary Ann Bassas (Philippines) just happen to be drawn into what evidently became the toughest group in the tournament. She had a 3-2 record in group play but just lost out in the tiebreaker by one point. She was the only player with a 3-2 record in the group stage not to advance into the single elimination bracket. Earlier in the day she had lost to reigning Amway World 9-Ball champion Chieh-Yu Chou by a score of 5-0. If she could have won a couple of games in that match instead of getting blanked, the Philippine crowd would have one more of their own to cheer for.
Though Loraine didn't make it to the single elimination round, she had a say in who did earn the top spot and receive the bye in round 1.
THE LUCK
Jeanette Lee (US) should be thanking Shanelle Loraine of Guam to the tune of at least $500 USD. Just after “The Black Widow” lost a hill-hill thriller to Veronika Hubrtova (CZE), Lorraine played Hubrtova and defeated her by a score of 5-3. Hubrtova was in the driver’s seat to claim the number-one seed in her group and earn a first-round bye in the single-elimination phase. All she had to do was win four games in the final match against Lorraine, but she failed to do so and surrendered the top seed in the group to Lee. They both had a 4-1 record, but before the head-to-head criteria was used as a tiebreaker, the number of games won was used first. Total games won was Lee at 24 and Hubrtova at 23, giving the first-round bye to “The Black Widow.”
View the single elimnation brackets
Karen Corr (IRE), Kelly Fisher (ENG), Allison Fisher (ENG), Hsiang-Lin Tan (TPE), and Miyuki Fuke (JAP) all went undefeated in group play and earned the top five seeds and a first-round bye in the order listed previous. Jeanette Lee, Shin-Mei Liu (TPE), and Akimi Kajitani (JAP) rounded out the top eight seeds, each with a 4-1 record but tops in their group and also receiving a bye into the second round of eliminations.
The other players that have advanced into the single-elimination bracket are: Yun Mi Lim (KOR), Akio Ohtani (JAP), Yuan-Chun Lin (TPE), Chihiro Kawahara (JAP), Veronika Hubrtova (CZE), Tamara Rademakers (NED), Rubilen Amit (PHI), Julie Kelly (IRE), Yu Ram Cha (KOR), Gillian Go (PHI), Jasmin Ouschan (AUT), Angeline Ticoalu (IND), Ga Young Kim (KOR), Charlene Chai (SIN), Chieh-Yu Chou (TPE), and Apsra Punhoo (RSA).