On a cold afternoon where most players didn't bother to take off their jackets inside the Taipei Gymnasium on Nanjing East Road, 48 of the world's best women pool players began an intense competition to determine who would be the world's best.
Taiwan's top-ranked player, Lin Yuan-chun, was in a gruff, almost irritable mood minutes before her first match. Her attitude belied her nickname, "Female Assassin," as she has made a habit of staring down opponents with her stealth-like game.
With a WPA ranking of No. 6, Lin is one of the early favorites in this four-day tournament. Today she played well, but not well enough to put her in a good mood.
A product of Taoyuan area pool clubs, Lin began playing at the age of 17, and has been a professional for six years. She routinely plays against men, including World 9-Ball Champion Wu Chia-ching.
Lin has appeared on televised tournaments in Taiwan, gaining the skills to compete against the world's best.
Formidable competition, in fact, is close at hand, as Jennifer "9mm" Barretta of the US entered the gymnasium in a pair of cowboy boots and an iPod strapped to her belt. The cold, humid weather didn't affect her. She quickly stripped off her coat to reveal a pink stretch top that accentuates her blond hair and her pin-up figure.
Her opponent, Estelle Bijnen, a tall blond from the Netherlands, didn't seem to be distracted by Barretta's good looks.
Bijnen suffered early losses in Kaohsiung last year, quickly knocking her out of the competition.
Bijnen needs better early results this year to advance to the single elimination round of 24 players.
"The humidity affects play a little bit -- it makes the cue ball stick a little more and everything is a little slower," Bijnen said.
For those unfamiliar with women's 9-ball, matches typically take one hour to play, much slower then men's matches, which can be over in less than 30 minutes in a race to five format.
"The difference between men and women is in the head," Bijnen said. "Women think of everything while men simply concentrate on the shot ahead of them."
She admitted that some matches can proceed slowly, as women like to use defensive plays while also taking plenty of time to line up shots.
Still, the slow play isn't expected to hurt turnout. While admission is free, organizers will limit the audience to 5,000 spectators a day, on a first come first served basis.
"This tournament has always been very successful and has always drawn a large crowd," Robert Huang, organizer of the Amway Cup, said. "There will be no less than 3,800 spectators a day during the tournament."
Over the past eight years, the tournament paid for travel expenses and appearance fees for top-ranked players such as Allison Fisher, and Jeanette Lee, the Korean-American sensation also known as "The Black Widow."
This year, however, the event is doubling as the Women's World 9-Ball Championship, and prize money is taking the place of appearance fees.
"Jeanette Lee's appearance fee rose to US$10,000 per day this year," Huang said. "We weren't prepared to pay that type of money for her to play."
While some fans may regret the loss of such high profile players, this year's Amway Cup will feature attractive and talented Asian players such as up-and-coming South Korean challenger Kim Ga-young and China's Pan Xiaoting.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but