The Amway eSpring Cup Women 9-Ball Championship 2017 completed in style at the Taipei Gymnasium in Taiwan. Not only that the Cup is celebrating its 20th anniversary, a brand new champion was also born. On top of this, moments were recorded when all 4 Chinese players (PAN Xiaoting, CHEN Siming, LIU ShaSha Sandy and HAN Yu) were in the last 8, while none of the Taiwanese were able to make it to the quarter-finals. This year’s tourament lasted 7 days, from Feb 26 (qualifiers) to Mar 5.
On the last day of the tournament , the 2007 champion Pan Xiaoting and the young Chen Siming (world ranked #4) met in an all-Chinese final this year. In the race to 11 final, Xiaoting won the lag to break, but Siming soon went ahead in the match. At one stage, Siming was leading 9-5, but Xiaoting then showed her strength to cut the deficit down to 1 only.
In the 18th rack, Chen Siming broke and ran to reach the hill. In the next rack, Pan Xiaoting broke but could run the table. When there were only 3 balls left, Chen scratched on her safety shot. Xiaoting made the first ball, untying the remaining two forzen balls at the same time, but then failed to pot a long black. Chen Siming came back to the table to run a simple routine and roared to her first ever Amway Cup title!
“安麗益之源盃”世界女子花式撞球錦標賽於台北體育館完美落幕。今年不單是安麗盃慶祝20週年紀念，決賽日更是見證了一位新的安麗9球天后的誕生。除此之外，今年的安麗盃也記錄了幾條有趣的數據：四位參賽的中國選手(潘曉婷、陳思明、劉莎莎和韓雨) 同時進入了八強，四位準決賽中的選手有三位是來自中國，而中華台北選手竟然沒有一人打進八強。今年的賽事由2月26日的會外賽開始，至3月5日的決賽，共渡過了七天的悲喜時光。
2007年冠軍潘曉婷，在今年安麗盃的中國打比決賽中，遇上小師妹世界排名第4的陳思明。在搶11局的決賽中，潘曉婷贏得發球權，但很快陳思明便在賽局中領先，並一度把比分拉開至9-5。但潘曉婷的也非等閒之輩，力抗壓力把雙方的距離縮小至一局之差。
第18局中由陳思明衝球，完成清台並率先到達賽點。下一局由潘曉婷衝球，雖然有連接球但未能全面進攻。當桌面只剩下三顆球的時候，陳思明欲做防守但母球卻洗袋。潘曉婷再度上場，打進第一顆並解開了另外兩顆的貼球，但卻未能打進長枱8號球。之後陳思明輕鬆補進餘下的球，成功為自己奪得生命中首次的安麗盃冠軍!
Siming with her Mom:)
Text: Samuel Lai
Photos: Alison Chang