Women World Championships 2007 in Taipei/Taiwan

It was the second time in a row that the WPA World Women Championships took place in Taipei/Taiwan. From the 4^th of April till the 9^th of April the best women in the world had only one common goal, the title. Right after the European Championships, Jasmin Ouschan and her Trainer Michael Neumann had to repack their suitcases for the trip to Taiwan. Because of the third place the year before, Ouschan was considered as one of the few favourites in this field. Due to a painful arthropathy at the beginning of 2007 where Jasmin Ouschan lost 2 month of practice, the goal evaluation for this event got a little bit difficult.

“Of course the preparation for this tournament was though, but my goal is it always to be on top and I won´t let myself get out of balance because of that."

The venue for this year World Championships was the gigantic Tai Mall shopingcentre. As usual in the billiard metropolis Taiwan, all matches were live broadcasted on TV and thousands of spectators were no rareness. The tournament mode was a Round Robin system in the pre rounds and a KO-System with the last 24 players. Jasmin Ouschan was seeded Nr.1 in her group and was able to start with a 5:2 victory over US American Megan Minerich. In the second match Ouschan faced the shooting star of the US Pro Tour Kelly Fisher, who put Ouschan under a lot of pressure by leading 4:2. Ouschan known for her mental strength managed to come back into the match and win close with 5:4.

On the second day Ouschan played against Chien-Yu Chou from Taiwan, who won a spot through the qualification tournament, which was held a few days before. With a good match and a 5:2 score Jasmin Ouschan gained another important victory in this group system before she played the Snooker World Champion Wendy Jans from Belgium. Even though Ouschan was leading with 2:0 Wendy Jans kept on playing good pool and made one game after another. At the score of 4:3 the Austrian made an unnecessary mistake which gave Jans the chance to finish with 5:3. In the night match Ouschan played against the Nr.1 from Australia, Lyndall Hulley. A little bit angry after the defeat against Jans, Ouschan played flawless pool and crushed the player from Down Under with a hefty 5:0 score.

Just by looking at the results in the groups you can tell how much stronger the field got. Players like Gerda Hofstätter and Helena Thornfeldt, who both play very successfully at the US Pro Tour, did not get through the group. But the biggest surprise was the failure of the "Grande Dame" in the Billiardsport, multiple World Champion and top favourite Allison Fisher who only won two matches in her group and did not enter the last 24.

After the group matches were finished the tournament director made the draw for the last 24. Surprisingly Ouschan had to play Wendy Jans again. After loosing the group match against her, Ouschan prepared differently for this match and only tried to focuse on her strengths. After a bad start, Ouschan was trailing 3:0 until she was able to make better use of her opportunities and take a 5:4 lead. After a TV Time-Out Jans showed strong pool and managed to even up the score. She ran out the next game and was only one more point away from the victory. In the 12^th game Ouschan lost her concentration and missed a ball which gave Jans the chance to kick Ouschan out of the tournament.

The progress of this World Championships looked more like an Asian Championships with foreign attendance. Only Kelly Fisher and Kim White from the USA were the only non Asian players in the quarterfinals. The final was between Amit Rubilen from the Philippines, who kicked out the former World Champion Ga Young Kim, and the winner of the last US Pro Tour Event Xiao Ting Pan from China. Xiao Ting Pan gave her opponent no air to breathe and dominated every second of the match. After a very good match Xiao Ting Pan won the World Championships with a clear 11:5 score.

“She really deserves that title. She won the last US Pro Tour Event and played on a really high level during this Championship and showed no weaknesses at all. With my result I am not very satisfied. In both defeats I had the chance to win what makes me really angry especially since the other matches were pretty good.”

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