Michell Monk Defeats Monica Webb to go to the Final 16 at the WPBA Tour Championships

The WPBA Tour Championship is halfway through Day 3 at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, FL, where the world’s best female players have come to battle it out for the last event of the season.  A lot is on the line at this event, as the results will determine which players make the cut to become exempt tour members–which means they will be automatically invited to every event in the 2010 season.

The biggest upset of Day 3 so far was the elimination of reigning Tour Champion and WPBA veteran Monica Webb, in a 9-6 defeat at the hands of Michell Monk of Melbourne, FL.  Webb had fallen last night to Taipei’s Xiaoting Pan in a close 9-7 match.

The final 16 players have been determined after the re-draw, and the single elimination rounds is about to begin at 6pm.  Coming up on the feature table at 6pm, we will get to see Michell Monk match up against Hall of Famer Allison Fisher.

This stream is free to view, so click here to check it out, and is provided by sponsorship from PoolDawg.com.

Read on for the summary from Day 1 and Day 2 by Anne Craig of the WPBA.

November 12th, 2009 – Hollywood, FL

This WPBA event began Thursday at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in earnest as 64 of the top ranked players for 2009 compete for much more than just the title. Rankings after this event will determine what 48 players will receive their Exemption to the 2010 WPBA season.

Held at the Hard Rock Live, the WPBA Tour Championships is being held side-by-side with the Steve Mizerak 10 Ball Championships, produced by the Seminole Hard Rock. The WPBA Tour Championships is being streamed live over the web for free thanks to Pooldawg.com, Presenting Sponsor for Web Streaming 2009.

Wednesday evening featured a celebrity Charity Pro Am to benefit Vivian’s Kidz hosted by former Miami Heat Pro, Jason Mashburn. Prior to the Pro-Am, the WPBA gave The Most Improved Player award to Canada’s Denise Belanger, whose improvement from the rankings at year end 2008 to now earned her the award. Rookie of the Year honors went to another Canadian, Veronique Menard. The WPBA also honored Mr. James Bakula, formerly of Brunswick Billiards, with the 2009 WPBA Hall of Fame Trophy for Meritorious Service.

Mr. Bakula was instrumental in supporting Women’s Professional Billiards and our organization.
The Charity Celebrity Pro Am was tons of fun, and alongside the team play, there was a silent auction with great sports and TV memorabilia which in total raised a lot of money for Vivian’s Kidz Charity. Pictured is Vivian attempting to shark Allison while one of Allison’s Pro Am team partners pulls Vivian away!

There was only one major upset in the first round of play when veteran WPBA player and Hall of Famer, Vicki Paski defeated one of the shining stars of the next generation, Sarah Rousey, hill-hill. There were quite a few exciting hill-hill matches featured in the first round including Anna Kostanian vs. Monica Webb, Tracie Hines vs. Val Finnie, Belinda Calhoun vs. Allison Fisher, Julie Kelly vs. Cathy Metzinger and Eleanor Callado vs. Kelly Fisher. Monica, Tracie, Allison, Julie and Kelly all advanced but certainly each was tested to the fullest.

The second round, 8pm matches heated up considerably with the stunning hill-hill match between Japan’s and the current #1 Ranked Player, Kyoko Sone Ga Young Kim. Kyoko came out the victor between the two, sending Ga Young to the one loss side for the first time in several tournaments.

The next volley was lobbed by Angel Paglia when she defeated veteran Helena Thornfeldt, 9-5. Angel jumped out to a 6-0 lead and held strong but Helena fought back to 4-7 midway through the match, breaking and running 3 racks out of her 5 games. Angel reached the hill first and Helena could only post one more before Angel struck the final blow by breaking & running in the final rack to advance to the third round.

The 10pm match-ups saw Julie Kelly lose to Kelly Fisher, while Monica Webb advanced versus Nicole Keeney. Jeanette Lee, who earlier today unveiled the custom-made Orange County Chopper “Black Widow Bike” commissioned by her sponsor, Liquid Wick, defeated Laura Smith to advance to the third round. Karen Corr, Xiaoting Pan, Gerda Hofstatter, Jasmin Ouschan, Allison Fisher were among those that also advanced to the 3rd round.

Moving on to Day 2, the action stated Friday morning 11:00am, and the tension was high.  There was a lot at stake for many of these players in the one loss side, several of whom are “on the bubble” on the 2009 WPBA Rankings. Only the top 48 ranked players after this event will earn their exemption for 2010.

The first web match of the day featured four-time Collegiate Champion Eleanor Callado shooting against Canada’s Cathy Metzinger. Eleanor played strong, and won convincingly 9-3. Next up was crowd favorite Sarah Rousey (Sponsored by Pooldawg.com who is also the Presenting Sponsor for Web Streaming) versus veteran player Liz Taylor, who had a fantastic 5th place tie finish at the WPBA Colorado Classic in September.    Sarah had lost her first round match to veteran Vicki Paski hill-hill, and could not shake the tenacious Taylor off track. Liz took advantage of the opportunities she received and defeated Sarah, also hill-hill, sending Sarah home two & out.

The WPBA’s Most Improved Player 2009, Denise Belanger, played a tough match against Borderline Billiards co-owner, Janet Atwell but in the end, defeated Janet 9-7. Meanwhile, Ga Young Kim played against Anna Kostanian in the 2nd round one loss side. Ga Young had lost to Kyoko Sone on Thursday but wasn’t about to make an early exit, beating Anna 9-4. Back at the web table, Jennifer Barretta matched up against the 2008 APA U.S. Amateur National Champion, Amy Chen, and defeated her 9-5.

As we moved further into the tournament, the fight was on for those coveted top 48 Exemptions for 2010. The WPBA will see some fresh faces on the exemption list including Holly Sholes, Michell Monk, and Eleanor Callado. Their accomplishment is made more special since all three lost their first round matches to top players; Michell lost to Karen Corr, Eleanor lost to Kelly Fisher and Holly lost to Kim Shaw. They’ve all barreled their way through the one loss side and can now say they are WPBA Pro’s for 2010, congratulations! Michell moved on to Saturday’s round of 24 while Eleanor finished tied for 25th.

The 8:00pm winner’s bracket 3rd round saw Karen Corr run her way to the Final 16, defeating Liz Ford 9-3, while Kelly Fisher and Jeanette Lee played an exciting match. Kelly was focused though and beat Jeanette 9-6. Meanwhile Gerda Hofstatter matched up against Tracie Hines and looked to run away with the match taking a 5-0 lead. But Tracie fought back to tie things up at 5 all and the two proceeded to trade games until Tracie closed out the match 9-7.    Xiaoting Pan and Monica Webb played the feature web stream match for the round and also fought tooth and nail, trading games all the way to 7 all but Xiaoting pulled away to win 9-7.

The final round of the day began in earnest with the web stream feature matchup between the hometown favorite Vivian Villarreal versus Kim Shaw who were vying for a top 16 spot. The other three winner’s bracket matchups were Kyoko Sone against Melissa Herndon; two-time winner this year Jasmin Ouschan played against Holland’s Tamara Rademakers who had already locked up her exemption for 2010 alongside Angel Paglia, who matched up versus  Allison Fisher.

Kyoko Sone, who had defeated Ga Young Kim in her 2nd round match, continued to impress by knocking Melissa Herndon into the 1 loss side and reach the Final 16. On the one loss side, Laura Smith continues her strong play this season, defeating the 2000 World 9 Ball Champion, Julie Kelly 9-5. Ewa Laurance couldn’t fend off Line Kjorsvik who had finished in the top 8 at the Pacific Coast Classic; Line won 9-4.

Melissa Morris moved on into the top 24 round after defeating Joanne Ashton in a grinding hill-hill match while Jennifer Barretta and Holly Sholes battled back and forth. After an hour and fifty minutes, the score was tied up at 7 all. After Jennifer scratched on the 4 ball in game 15, Holly ran out to reach the hill first. That same four ball proved to be Jennifer’s thorn in the side as she jawed it in game 16 but Holly returned the favor on the 6 ball and Jennifer ran out to go hill-hill. Holly earned an open shot in the final game but missed the 6 in the side, leaving Jennifer a long shot on the 6 which she pocketed and continued to run out to win the match 9-8 and advance into tomorrow’s rounds.

Back to the winner’s bracket we went as Jasmin moved on to the final 16 beating Tamara soundly 9-1. Kyoko also advanced to another Final 16 berth by winning 9-3 against veteran Melissa Herndon. Angel Paglia was not going to let Allison roll over her and took the lead 6-5 midway while Vivian and Kim Shaw were knotted up at 8 as the web kept a watchful eye.

Vivian certainly felt pressure to perform since this is her home turf; The Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Hard Rock are her sponsors. Vivian would go into the final game with the break advantage. Vivian had no shot on the 1 and was forced to play a safe. The game progressed slowly but Kim came to the table with an open shot on the 2 and began the task of running out. She was stopped cold as her position play to the 5 came up short forcing her to play safe leaving Vivian to ponder the dilemma for several minutes as she faced a long, difficult 5/7 combination. She nailed the shot and ran out to advance to the Final 16.

Back to Angel & Allison as they spent 20 minutes in game 15 going back and forth until Angel had an open shot, ran out to the 9 but hung the ball in the pocket, allowing Allison to go up a game 7-6. Allison never looked back and finished off the match at 9-6 for the last of the Final 16 spots.

Matches started at noon today with the first four of the one loss side. Visit www.WPBA.com for Tournament Brackets.