Kelly Fisher has enjoyed the addition of the Predator Pro Billiard Series to the international calendar; the Brit has won both previous Women’s events on the series.
On Tuesday, she began her efforts to win a third as the Women’s division of the Predator Germany Open began at ATLANTIC Hotel Galopprennbahn, Bremen. Staged alongside the Open event, the Women’s division has equal added money of €45,400 and an international field including Austria’s Jasmin Ouschan and Alfa Las Vegas Open runner-up Brittany Bryant of Canada.
Fisher’s first match was against Sukmawaty Facquet of Indonesia, on the winners’ side of the backets after a bye through the first round. The Alfa Las Vegas Women’s Open champion was shooting sharp and gave Facquet very few chances at the table in the opening set, save for some difficult shots on the 1 which weren’t taken after push outs by Fisher. An attempted bank of the 9 ball went wrong for Facquet in the first game of the second set and just 20 minutes later Fisher had completed a 4-0, 4-0 shutout.
Ouschan, also beginning on the winners’ side, suffered a surprise Sudden Death shootout defeat by Katrina Wan of Hong Kong. Taking the first set 4-1, Ouschan was held to a 3-3 tie after six games of the second set and it was Wan who was first to escape a series of safeties around the 8 ball to take it to shootout. Both players made three of their initial four shots but it was Wan who prevailed in Sudden Death when Ouschan missed in her seventh innings.
In the Open division, Tuesday’s play was reserved for the losers’ side of the bracket. After an opening round defeat to friend and fellow Spanish player Jose Alberto Delgado, Jonas Souto was sent home after a shootout defeat by Hong Kong’s Ip Tung Pong. Souto won the first set 4-0 but the second set finished 4-1 to Tung Pong, who won the shootout 5-4 at Sudden Death.
Poland’s Konrad Juszczyszyn is also heading home after defeat by a player from Hong Kong. Yip Kin Ling lost in the first round to Vincent Gomez but a 2-0 win against Juszczyszyn, a former EuroTour winner and 2018 European 9-Ball Champion, means the Asian player progresses to face Jani Siekkinen next.
Oliver Ortmann’s tournament continues after he defeated Richard Halliday of South Africa, and Finnish junior player Riku Romppanen claimed victory against Thorben Brunnen. Play resumes at 11am local time on Wednesday as the winners’ side taking stage in the Open event. The Women’s division will see matches from both sides of the bracket.
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