Final Four set at 2025 Oneida WPA Women’s 8-Ball World Championships
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Jasmin Ouschan
The Final Four competitors at the 2025 WPA Women’s 8-Ball Championship, set to compete at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. (EDT) this afternoon (Sun., July 6), has likely come as a surprise to more than just a few. Given what many people probably thought ahead of time, or at least those who follow the sport closely and know about the competitors’ skills, ranking and history prior to this event, it’s likely that their ‘predicted’ Final Four would have been different, arguably a lot different.
As a random example, Kristina Tkach and Kelly Fisher were among the Final 16 when single-elimination play began yesterday (Sat., July 5). They were seeded at opposite ends of the bracket, guaranteeing that if they met at all, it would be in the finals. Without concrete evidence, we suspect that many, if not all of the people who, in their minds, were predicting/hoping/speculating that it would be these two in the final, were likely very surprised when Fisher lost her opening match to Meng-Hsia Hung.
So, with one ‘final’ possibility off the table, so to speak, new calculations emerged, based on who, from the opposite end of the single bracket, would be the finalist to face Tkach. Thoughts turned to a matchup versus either Jasmin Ouschan (#2, WPA and #19, WPBA) or Kristina Zlateva (#8, WPA and #3, WPBA). And then, Tkach lost her second single-elimination round, as Ouschan and Zlateva, meeting in that second round, took one of them out of a predicted finalists equation.
So, yeah. By any substantive measure, some surprises marked Day Four of the tournament as the field came down to the Final Eight and then, the Final Four. The first-round, Fisher/”Bean” Hung match was arguably the most surprising. They battled back and forth to an entertaining and dramatic 4-4 tie, when the momentum of the match shifted. Fisher did not win another rack and Hung advanced to take on Taipei’s Chia-Hua Chen.
Meanwhile, Ouschan and Zlateva had set out for their eventual meetup in the second, quarterfinal round with victories. Zlateva survived a double-hill battle versus Korea’s Seo Seoa, as Ouschan was busy downing Japan’s Samia Konishi 8-2.
Meanwhile, in the upper half of the single-elimination bracket, Tkach and Pia Filler began a match, the result of which probably came as a surprise depending on who was rooting for whom. Tkach gave up just a single rack and advanced to pick up Margarita Fefilova, who might, in some circles, have been considered a ‘dark horse’ candidate for an appearance in the final. Fefilova had defeated Ana Gradisnik 8-4 in the opening round. Taipei’s Tzu-Chien Wei and Chieh-Yu Chou battled to double-hill in their opening round, before “Wei-Wei” prevailed to draw the Philippines’ Chezka Centeno, who’d eliminated Japan’s Chihiro Kawahara 8-4.
The biggest (arguable) surprise in the quarterfinal round happened when Fefilova downed Tkach 8-4, although that, too, may have depended less on comparisons of their known skills, ranking and reputation and more on the ‘who rooted for whom’ lists. Centeno and Tzu-Chien Wei battled to double hill in their match (no surprise), with Centeno advancing (an arguable surprise) to take on Fefilova.
Ouschan punched her ticket to the semifinals with an 8-3 victory over Zlateva in another one of those surprises that depended on who you asked. Chia-Hua Chen downed “Bean” Hung 8-6, advancing to pick up Ouschan.
So, at 1 p.m. (EDT), Fefilova will take on Centeno for a shot at being one of the event’s finalists. At 3 p.m. (EDT), Ouschan takes on Chia-Hua Chen. Though Fefilova and Ouschan might be the odds-on ‘favorites’ to win these two matches, this inaugural women’s world 8-ball championship has yielded more than its expected number of surprises already, and it shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise if either or both of the ‘underdogs’ make the leap to become the event’s first finalists.
Both semifinal matches will be available on WPBA’s YouTube channel for free (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz3nECcig-zgKYfFvkS15hQ) and, if you happen to have a subscription to Amazon Prime, can be found by following the ‘Sports’ link at the top of the streaming service’s home page.
