The Predator Pro Billiard Series is putting big money into Women’s pool and that continues with the Predator Canada Open, which began in Red Deer, Alberta on Wednesday.
The event is the fourth Women’s Pro Billiard Series event and the winner this week will take home $20,000. So far, Kelly Fisher has won all three Women’s Pro Billiard Series tournaments but has a strong field to battle against in the WPBA sanctioned Canada Open.
The Brit had a bye through the first round at the Cambridge Red Deer Hotel and didn’t lose a game as she moved into Thursday’s play with a 4-0, 4-0 win against Mary Avina.
The match of the day was Allison Fisher’s against ‘Amber’ Chia Hua Chen, eventually won by the 22-year-old Asian by sudden death shootout. As third seed, Fisher had a bye to the winners’ side of the brackets and met Chen after the Taiwanese player had defeated Savannah Easton 4-0, 4-0.
Chen, whose nickname translates as ‘Girl Genius’, has beaten Fisher before and quickly turned around the first set to lead 3-1 after losing the first game. A great jump for a 2-10 carom got Fisher back to 2-3, but Chen took the first set after Fisher missed a 5 ball combo.
Fisher, the Billiards Congress of America Hall of Famer, also won the first game of the second set but again Chen, whose partner Robbie Capito was in the commentary booth, hit back. She had a chance to open up a 3-1 lead but left Fisher enough angle on the 6 to allow the Brit to steal the game. A brilliant safety hiding the 7 tight behind the 8 was the highlight reel moment as Fisher then regained her lead. The match was sent to shootout when Chen missed a jump on the 7, but after neither player missed a shot in their first four innings, Chen was visibly relieved when Fisher failed on her fifth shot to hand Chen the win.
Pool fans were offered a look to the future in the day’s final match on the streaming table. Las Vegas’ 12-year-old Savannah Easton was playing outside of the United States for the first time and defeated Toni Sakamoto on the one-loss side. She took the first set 4-2 and twice bounced back to win the second set 4-3. “I was so relieved to sink that last 10-ball because otherwise we would have gone to shootout where it comes down to one shot,” said Easton.
Turkey’s Eylul Kibaroglu is enjoying a fruitful summer. She almost became the first player to stop Kelly Fisher from winning a Predator Pro Billiards Series event when she pushed the Brit to 9-8 shootout in the Germany Open final in June and earlier this month Kibaroglu won the EuroTour Petrich Open.
She remained on the winners side of the draw in Alberta, first with a shootout win against Sandy Badger and then with a less dramatic 4-0, 4-0 win against Cathy Metzinger.
Canada’s Brittany Bryant has been excited to welcome her fellow pros to her home country but she’ll be wanting to make sure the $20,000 winner’s check doesn’t have to cross any borders at the end of the week. A 4-1, 4-1 win against Shanelle Loraine was a perfect start and Bryant will now match Naomi Williams in the first streamed match tomorrow.
Play continues at 10am MT on Thursday when six more matches will be streamed live at watchbilliard.tv and on the World Billiard TV YouTube channel.
Follow @probilliardseries on Facebook, @probilliardseries on Instagram or @PBilliardSeries on Twitter to follow the next events.
Each of this year’s US Pro Billiard Series events are WPBA sanctioned events.
The events use Predator Apex Pro tables covered with Predator Arcadia Reserve Performance Cloth, with Predator Arcos II balls, and under the Predator Arena billiard lights. CSI, Kamui and Alfa Coin are global Pro Billiard Series Partners.
The Predator Pro Billiard Series is a series of open, professional events held around the world to provide more opportunities for professional and aspiring pool players to compete in high-quality events, earn more income, sharpen their skills.
The winner of each Pro Billiard Series event will receive a guaranteed spot in the Predator Cues World Women’s 10-Ball Championship, which will be held in Klagenfurt, Austria, September 6-10.
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