Pool Cue News and Review

Over the weekend, Predator presented the first Jim Murnak Women’s Open, which drew some very familiar names including Emily “Yummy” Duddy, Caroline Pao and one of my favorite WPBAers, the always foxy Liz Ford.  So the newsworthy thing here is that Liz and Iris Ranola decided to call it a tie rather than play out the match to determine the winner and split the title.

Now you all know how much I dig Liz Ford and really I don’t blame her or Iris for calling it considering how late in the evening it was, but the reality is that this sort of thinig should not have been allowed.  In pro matches, you don’t shake hands and call it a tie, especially in the championships.  Sure, we’re not talking about big money here, but that’s not the point.  Could you imagine Nadal and Federer saying “let’s just split the title”?

There have been rumblings about this sort of thing happening for years, either when it is done officially as Liz and Iris did or with backroom private deals where the two finalists agree to split the winnings regardless of who actually wins the final match.  The promoter of this event should have either told the players to play out the final match or if they were both too tired, to play it the next morning.  Sharing a title simply shouldn’t be an option.  If pool ever wants to be taken seriously as a professional sport, a good first step would be playing out the championship matches.

Alright, Alright… this event gets more and more interesting every day. As you know, Liz Ford got bounced by Miyuki Sakai 9-3 yesterday, but my favorite little pixie is just one win away from the round of 16! Sarah Rousey beat Maria Catalano 9-8 and is now matched up against Caroline Pao who yesterday got rolled 9-3 by Karen “The Librarian” Corr.

In other results, teeniebopper Anna Kostanian took time out of her mall tour to beat 3 time champ Kelly Fisher who is matched up against Dawn Hopkins. Anna will be joined by tour regulars Allison Fisher, Karen Corr, Xiaoting Pan, Ga Young Kim, Sarah Ellerby and Monica Webb. In addition, they’ll be joined by another surprise winner in Melissa Herndon who hasn’t been on TV since that godawful show “Ballbreakers”. Final matches in the losers bracket will conclude this afternoon and the next round of matches are scheduled to start at 9:00PM tonight. Stop by later and I should have some updated results. I leave you with an action shot of Jasmin Ouschan courtesy of the WPBA, who hasn’t lived up to the hype she built with her 2007 BCA/EnjoyPool/GenerationPool 9 Ball Championship. We forgive her though since she is such a foxy little minx!

Not a good day for the hotties. Sarah lost a close 9-7 match to The Hoff and Liz got crushed by a steamrolling Monica Webb, just off a 9-2 thrashing of Morgan Steinman. That throws these two into the one loss bracket, which is turning into a virtual calendar of WPBA pinups. Along with Rousey and Ford, Jasmin Ouschan, Jennifer Barretta, Ewa Laurence, Tiffany Nelson, and Rachael Abbink (who sometimes looks unreal and other times looks well… not her freshest) are all on the one loss side.

One of the survivors of a brutal second round was Anna Kostanian, who’s playing lights out pool. Unfortunately, she’s matched up against Kelly Fisher which means we’ll likely see her on the one loss side shortly. The match I’m looking forward to though is Liz taking on Angel Paglia, assuming Angel can get past Miyuki Sakai. Holy schneikes!!

I’m pretty much done with this damn site migration finally. I couldn’t get the old Wordpress theme to work, so I settled on this new one… pretty bland, but I’m to lazy to find something better. As for the San Diego Classic, what can I say… I’m a fan. For those not aware, the WPBA kicked off their 2008 tour in San Diego and two of my favorites are playing: Sarah Rousey and Liz Ford. Both hotties easily won their matches with Liz beating Janet Atwell 9-5 and Rousey rolling Mitchell 9-3.

For those interested in the “other” players, I suppose I’ll let you know that Allison Fisher, Kelly Fisher, Jasmin and Karen Corr all won their first round matches as well. There’s actually a great match-up in the second round with Jasmin going against Kelly Fisher, so one of the favorites is going to end up in the losers bracket quite early. I’ll have more results tomorrow morning, but I’ll leave you with a picture of the lovely Ms. Rousey warming up, courtesy of the WPBA.

Foxy Liz Ford will be spending more time in Brooklyn, as she recently announced that Skyline Billiards is sponsoring her.  The following is from her press release:

Liz Ford is pleased to announce that Skyline Billiards of Brooklyn, NY is her newest sponsor! A frequent player at Skyline, Liz is excited to work with owners Rob Pole Jr. and Sammy Wu to promote the room during her 2008 tournament season. Liz, currently ranked 34th in the WPBA, is in Taipei, Taiwan this week representing the U.S. at the WPA Women’s World 9-Ball Championships.
Located in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn, NY near Coney Island, Skyline Billiards is a full service pool room featuring:
- 16 Brunswick Gold Crown tables
- Chevillotte heated billiard table
- Internet Café
- Grilled Food and Cold Beer

Skyline is located at 2515 McDonald Ave. Brooklyn, New York 11223
TEL: (718) 627-3407 HRS: 11AM―3AM
For more information about Skyline Billiards visit http://www.skylinebilliards.com
For more information about Liz Ford visit http://www.lizford.net

Congrats Liz!  Now I know where to play next time I’m in the city.