Taiwan’s top female pool stars are seeking to keep the trophy at home when the Amway eSpring International Women’s Nine-Ball Championships begin today in Taipei.
Formerly known as the Amway Cup, organizers and sponsors of the tournament have set up an exhibition and invited special guests to celebrate the event’s 20-year anniversary.
It is among the top events in the women’s circuit and is sanctioned by the World Pool-Billiard Assocation (WPA),
the international governing body of pocket-billiard sports, as well as the Asian Pocket Billiard Union.
Most of the world’s top-ranked female players, along with several former tournament winners, are to play at the event, organizers said at a news conference.
The competitors are divided into eight groups for the round-robin stage and the games follow WPA nine-ball rules and the “three-ball break” rule.
The finals are to be played on Sunday.
The event is cohosted by the Taipei Department of Sports and the Chinese Taipei Billiards Association, with all games to be played at the Taipei Gymnasium next to the Taipei Arena.
British star Allison Fisher, a former World No. 1, won the inaugural Amway Cup in 1998 and is the most successful player at this year’s event, winning the title five times.
“It brought back many wonderful memories to see this special retrospective exhibition, for those early years when I won the championship a few times, and helped to build upon that success,” Fisher said, “I was just starting my career at the time, and it was a great experience coming to Taiwan to play in front of a new audience.”
“I love playing in this tournament. I like the format and the way it is organized, and also can meet people from many different cultures,” she said.
“We have made good friends with other players, even though we are competitors at the games,” she said.
Taiwan is represented by Chou Chieh-yu, who won the title in 2009 and 2012; Lin Yuan-chun, who won the title in 2008 and 2015; and 2004 winner Liu Shin-mei.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to