Turning Stone Classic Continues

The second day of the Turning Stone Classic XII is well underway, with another round in each bracket completed. The four-day event is hosted by the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, NY, and boasts a $25,000-added prize fund.

Women’s pro Allison Fisher, ranked sixth on the WPBA, bested Tony “The Sniper” Crosby in the second round of the winners’ bracket matches, sending him west to face off against Steve Moore, who lost his first match to Jack Smith but defeated Dave Ascolese 9-1 in his second. Fisher’s next match will be against reigning world 9-ball champion Daryl Peach.

Sarah Rousey, also still in the winners’ bracket, survived a hill-hill bout against Randy Labonte in the second round and will face off against Matt Tetreault. In the late-night round Thursday evening, Karen Corr advanced over David Wetmore 9-0 and will next play Liz Ford, who came through a hill-hill match against Caroline Pao.

The strong European contingent also continues to thrive in the winners’ side. Player of the Year Mika Immonen bested Adam Radomski 9-2, while Thorsten Hohmann squeaked past Josh Ulrich 9-8. England’s Darren Appleton and Peach also won their matches over Tamiko Kumatori 9-2 and Holden Chin 9-4, respectively.

Up-and-comer Oscar Dominguez out of Los Angeles made it through round two unscathed, defeating Earl Herring 9-4. Shawn Putnam bested Greg Priest 9-6, Dave Grau sent Dave Fernandez west 9-8, and George “Ginky” San Souci dealt Jonathan Smith a 9-0 donut.

Fisher on WPBA Pay-Per-View Web Casting For The 2008 Tour Championships

The Women’s Professional Billiard Association announces that for the 2008 WPBA Tour Championships, pay-per-view service will be available on www.wpba.com for select matches on Thursday November 13th and Friday November 14th, along with exclusive player interviews, match commentary, sideline reporting and updated statistics.

This marks the first time that a WPBA event can be viewed live on the internet. For $30 for both Thursday and Friday, or $20 for Friday only, fans can log in and watch select matches from the last tournament of the WPBA 2008 season live from the Seminole Hard Rock Casino & Resort in Hollywood, Florida.

Fans will have access to exclusive interviews with the WPBA’s top Professionals including Kelly Fisher, Allison Fisher, Jeanette Lee and many others. Sideline reporting will enhance the viewers’ perspective on matches in progress and statistics will provide further insight into how players stack up against each other. Coverage will include live scoring and constant feed from the tournament.

Carolina Classic Final Four

The WPBA Carolina Classic is down to the final four players, and those final four are definitely surprising names. There are no Fisher's, Corr's or Asian players to be found this time.

The final four are Jasmin Ouschan, Vivian Villarreal, Jeanette Lee and returning star Line Kjorsvik.

Ouschan is coming off an amazing third place finish at the Predator World Straight Pool Championship and has bounced back nicely from her third round loss to Sarah Rousey at this event. Ouschan bounced #1 ranked Kelly Fisher and Asian sensation Xiao-Ting Pan to make it to Sunday's match against Vivian Villarreal.

Villarreal has not seen an ESPN TV match since February of 2007 in the 07 Carolina Classic. Villarreal dropped a third round match to Karen Corr, but came back with wins over Rousey and Helena Thornfeldt on Saturday.

Unlike Ouschan and Villarreal, the other 2 players in the final four are undefeated all week. Jeanette Lee has looked practically untouchable all week with dominating wins over Anna Kostanian, Dawn Hopkins and Karen Corr to her credit.

Lee will need all the skills she has as she takes on Line Kjorsvik. Kjorsvik has wins this week over Xiao-Ting Pan, Kostanian and Allison Fisher to earn her place in the final four.

WPBA Final Sixteen

The WPBA Carolina Classic is down to the final sixteen players and the event has progressed into the single elimination stage.

The 7pm matches are...

Kelly Fisher vs Jasmin Ouschan
Gerda Hofstatter vs Xiao-Ting Pan
Sarah Rousey vs Vivian Villarreal
Ga-Young Kim vs Helena Thornfeldt

And the 8:45 matches are...

Line Kjorsvik vs Anna Kostanian
Allison Fisher vs Kyoko Sone
Jeanette Lee vs Dawn Hopkins
Karen Corr vs Miyuki Sakai

First Round Complete in Carolina Classic

The first round of the 64-player WPBA Carolina Classic is complete. Hosted by American Tobacco Historic District Campus in Durham, NC, the event began Thursday morning and will conclude Sunday afternoon.

Defending champion Ga Young Kim came through unfazed in the first round, sending Colorado’s Bonnie Plowman to the one-loss side 9-3. Kim’s next challenge will come from Holly Sholes, who just defeated Joanne Ashton in a hill-hill match.

Former WPBA number one, Allison Fisher, squeaked by her match with Brittany Bryant 9-8 and will next have to face Yu Ram Cha, who came in third place at the WPBA U.S. Open 9-Ball Championships. It was at this event where Fisher fell from first place to sixth on the WPBA ranking systems.

View the WPBA Carolina Classic double elimination brackets

The new number-one player, Kelly Fisher, skated through her first-round match with Janet Atwell 9-3 and will next face Gail Grecar, who just bested Megan Minerich 9-5. Ranked second on the tour, Karen Corr came through her match against Kim Jones 9-6 and will play Kim White in the second round.

Xiaoting Pan, ranked third on the tour, won her first match against Lisa D’Atri 9-3 and will move on to play Melissa Herndon, who eked through a double-hill match against Maureen Seto. Anna Kostanian, the young gun from New Mexico, also pulled off a win in her match against Ewa Laurance 9-7.

Classic Tour Heads Back to Carolina

After a tumultuous WPBA U.S. Open in August that saw two unseeded players advance to the semis while Allison Fisher went two-and-out, the top-ranked players have reestablished themselves in the opening rounds at this weekend's Carolina Classic held through Sept. 14 at the American Tobacco Campus in Durham, N.C.

Kelly Fisher, in her first event as the No. 1 seed on the Classic Tour, had no trouble in her first two matches, beating Janet Atwell, 9-3, and Gail Grecar, 9-2. Other favorites, including Karen Corr, Ga Young Kim and Xiaoting Pan, also remain unbeaten as play began on Friday.

Allison Fisher narrowly escaped a first-round upset bid from Brittany Bryant by taking the case game, 9-8. Fisher then sent Yu Ram Cha, surprise semifinalist from the U.S. Open, to the left side with a 9-4 second-round victory.
Iris Ranola, the other Cinderella story from last month, will have a long road ahead of her on the left side. The U.S. Open runner-up beat Stacy Hurst, 9-5, then lost to Tiffany Nelson, 9-6.

Allison squeaks by Bryant for WPBA first round win

The 2008 WPBA Carolina Classic kicked off on September 11th in Durham, North Carolina, at the American Tobacco Historic District Campus and day one has already seen it's fair share of close matches.

All eyes were on Allison Fisher after her "two and out" showing last month in San Diego. Fisher's opponent in the first round was Canadian Brittany Bryant. The match was tied at 8-8 with Bryant breaking, but a missed bank shot on the 2-ball was the end of Bryant's upset dreams. Fisher could have her hands full with Yu-Ram Cha in round two.

One of the big stories of the year so far, Anna Kostanian, came back from a 5-2 deficit to defeat The Striking Viking, Ewa Laurance 9-7. Kostanian will face Melissa Little next.

Other results of interest were new #1 ranked Kelly Fisher's 9-3 win over Janet Atwell, Liz Lovely's 9-6 win over Debbie Schjodt and Line Kjorsvik's 9-8 win over Julie Kelly.