Pan Determined to Defend Great Lakes Title

Pan Determined to Defend Great Lakes Title
by InsidePOOL Staff

The Women’s Professional Billiard Association (WPBA) kicked off their Great Lakes Classic event, right on the heels of the GenerationPool.com 9-Ball Championships in Charlotte, NC, two weeks ago. This tournament, the third stop on their 2008 calendar, is being hosted by the Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City, IN, and will conclude June 29.

Xiaoting Pan, who won the women’s division at the GenerationPool.com event, will be looking to defend her title at this event as well. And so far, so good. Her first-round match with Line Kjorsvik she won 9-7, and then she went on to handily defeat Tina Larsen 9-2. Pan’s next match will be against Monica Webb.

Third-place finisher at the GenerationPool.com tournament, Anna Kostanian is also doing well so far. She dusted Megan Minerich 9-3 in the first round and then sent Ewa Laurance to the one-loss side with a 9-5 victory and will next play Dawn Hopkins.

Karen Corr and Allison Fisher, both of whom finished in fifth place in Charlotte, are both in the winners’ side of the bracket still. Corr started off with a surprising forfeit from Laura Lindauer and then a 9-4 win over Caroline Pao. Fisher only allowed three games between her first two matches, defeating first Leanne Amable 9-1 and then Melissa Little 9-2.

Ga Young Kim, runner-up to Pan in Charlotte, also remains on the winners’ side, having gone through Sueyen Rhee 9-4 and Melissa Herndon by the same score in her usual rapid time. Surprisingly, though, Jasmin Ouschan suffered a first-round loss, going hill-hill with Yu Ram Cha and ending up on the left side of the bracket.

Visit InsidePOOL for the latest news in the sport of billiards and pool.