Final 16 begins single-elimination Stage 2 at Oneida WPA Women’s 8-Ball Championships
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Tzu-Chien Wei eliminated Helfery and Mast
Surprises? Not really. Disappointments? For sure, as at least 48 competitors have been eliminated from the first-ever WPA Women’s 8-Ball World Championships, eight of them having left the stage with some measure of recompense. Anticipation regarding the matchups that are and could be ahead as the tournament comes down to its Final 16 and heads into its final, Stage 2, single-elimination matches? Absolutely.
The three ‘Cinderellas’ who were in play at the start of yesterday’s (Friday, July 4) action have been eliminated; two of them by the same competitor, who’s now among the events Final 16, Tzu-Chien Wei. After winning three matches on the winners’ side of the double-elimination bracket, 14-year-old Jordan Helfery moved to the loss side, needing to win one, and only one match to advance to the Final 16. Her opponent was Tzu-Chien, who had just chalked up the first of two victories that she needed for advancement to Stage 2, downing the 15-year-old “Roadrunner,” Savannah Easton 7-4. Tzu-Chien defeated Helfery 7-1. In the same round of loss-side matches, Slovenia’s Ana Gradisnik eliminated Sofia Mast, who’d turned 17 on the day the tournament began (July 2) and had celebrated with her first win; 7-4 over Tina Larsen. After a second-round defeat versus Kelly Fisher (7-1) on Thursday, Mast won two on the loss side, before Gradisnik defeated her 7-2 in the last, qualifying-round for Stage 2.
The eight competitors who did not advance to single-elimination and finished the tournament with a cash payout (17th/24th), with some level of surprise among them, were Tapei’s Wan-Ling Wang, Japan’s Yuki Hiraguchi, April Larson, Sofia Mast, Ashley Benoit, Vietnam’s Nguyen Bich Tram, Helfery, and Norway’s Nina Torvund. They’ll all go into the record books as (cash) winners of the very first WPA Women’s 8-Ball World Championships, so congratulations are in order for them.
Four of today’s (Saturday, July 5) eight matches are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m., with the other four set for 3 p.m. (all times EDT). The quarterfinals (four matches) are scheduled to begin at 6 and 8 p.m. this evening, while the semifinals are set for 1 p.m. and 3 p.m on Sunday. The finals are scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday.
So, Final 16. Nine of them are among the WPBA’s Top 10 competitors (Allison Fisher did not compete). The #1 and #4 players on the WPBA rankings list (after the Soaring Eagle Masters event in June), Kristina Tkach and Pia Filler, will square off in one of the four matches scheduled for 1 p.m. Taipei’s Tzu-Chien Wei (#5) and Chieh-Yu Chou (#6) will also compete in the first-round’s first round of streamed matches on the WPBA’s YouTube channel and Amazon Prime.
Also on the 1 p.m. agenda will be the WPBA’s #2, Margarita Fefilova and Slovenia’s Ana Gradisnik. The last of the four early afternoon matches will pit Japan’s Chihiro Kawahara and the Philippines’ Chezka Centeno. The Tkach/Filler matchup has been designated as one of the live stream’s ‘featured’ matches, with Centeno and Kawahara designated as the 2nd feature. This side of the four-match, single-elimination bracket sets up the possibility of a second-round match at 6 p.m. between the WPBA’s top two players, Tkach and Fefilova.
At 3 p.m. (again, all times, EDT), the ‘feature’ match of the later afternoon group will be between Kelly Fisher and Australia’s Meng-Hsia (“Bean”) Hung. The second ‘feature’ match will bring Austria’s Jasmin Ouschan and Japan’s Samia Konishi together. Rounding out the final 16’s first round will be Kristina Zlateva (#3) and Korea’s Seo Seoa.
Hard to pin just one of the eight matches as a potential ‘must watch’ match, given the caliber of competitors on today’s match menu. Of course, they won’t all be streamed live. The 1 p.m. Tkach vs. Filler match is a candidate, as is the all-Tapei matchup between Chieh-Yu Chou and Tzu-Chien Wei. The potential for a Tkach/Pia Filler matchup, which would go off at 6 p.m. (EDT) would be a strong candidate for a ‘must watch’ and is likely to be one of the ‘feature’ matches of that round.
Among the matches scheduled for 3 p.m., Kelly Fisher versus “Bean” Hung is a ‘key’ matchup, as are the other two, upcoming matches among the Final Eight, which could potentially put Fisher into a semifinal against either Kristina Zlateva or Jasmin Oushcan.
Any one of these eight, down to four, down to two and down to one match scenarios would have been loaded with competitive drama no matter what the circumstances. These particular circumstances, being that (now, oft-repeated) first-ever WPA Women’s 8-Ball World Championships adds a little ‘historic event’ drama, which is only going to intensify over the next 24 hours. At that point, the field should be down to four semifinalists, when things are likely to get real interesting.
Don’t forget and tell your pool friends to catch the action on the WPBA’s YouTube page or Amazon Prime, which, by the way, on breaks in the match action, will offer you any of a number of previously recorded, professional-caliber matches with top-notch competitors at work (men, for the most part).
