Teenager Liu Shasha of China defeated Ireland’s Karen Corr 9-5 to claim the title and set her career in motion in grand style. When the last day of the Kappa 2009 Women’s World 9-Ball Championship in Shengyang, China began there were four undefeated players all seeking the same prize. The two semi-final matches could not have been closer. First, Karen Corr defeated Fu Xiofang of China 9-8 to earn her berth in the final set. Then Liu Shasha edged her fellow Chinese citizen Pan Xiaotang by the same 9-8 margin to get her ticket punched for the honor of playing Corr in the finals.

Before the final match a playoff was held between Pan Xiaotang and Xiaofang to determine our third place finisher. Pan controlled this match throughout and took that spot with a very convincing 9-1 victory. Then a crowd of over 1,000 very excited fans took their seats to watch the final battle.

It appeared that Corr would walk away with the title. She was the master of the table early on and rarely gave Shasha a glimpse of daylight. At one point she led our race to nine games by the score of 5-1. Shasha was obviously nervous and off her game. But then, assuming that she had to be aggressive to have a chance at victory, she put her nerves down and began her march. She won the next game to make the score 5-2, then broke and ran five racks in a row to lead 7-5. The penultimate rack had a bit of back and forth but Shasha won that as well and then on the final break she made four balls on the snap and easily made the clearance to take her 6th break and run of the match and earn the gold!

Jasmin Ouschan the great pool cue player, a week of winning the WPBA Tour Championship away (third, Classic Tour title of the year), shot in the first two opponents Lyndall Hulley the great pool cue player, 7-3, and Nicole Keeney the great pool cue player , 7-2 r for a place in the Round of 32nd Join the star of Austria, Xiaoting Pan another a great pool cue player, the runner free from Jasmin Ouschan the great pool cue player WPBA also selected two of the last group match. Half the field will be removed by Friday, when the knockout phase begins.

The Women’s Open 9-Ball was rescheduled to permit the top WPBA players to attend and compete for the $10,000 first place prize. This latest move to sanction the event is one more effort by Taylor Road Productions to guarantee a fantastic inaugural Galveston World Classic.
Taylor Road Productions is pleased to announce that the Women’s Open 9-Ball at the Galveston World Classic has been sanctioned by the Women’s Professional Billiard Association (WPBA) today.

Taylor Road Productions is pleased to announce that the Women’s Open 9-Ball at the Galveston World Classic has been sanctioned by the Women’s Professional Billiard Association (WPBA) today.

Anne Craig, WPBA Office and Event Administrator, said of the Galveston World Classic, “I know many of our players, both Pros and Amateurs alike, have expressed keen interest in participating in Galveston World Classic. We look forward to seeing live web coverage featuring the best in the world, including those top WPBA Exempt Professionals who compete in the Women’s 9 Ball Division. Many thanks go out to Robert Rone and Louis Vickio of Taylor Road Productions for the hard work and dedication to promote such a major event.”

The Women’s Open 9-Ball was rescheduled to permit the top WPBA players to attend and compete for the $10,000 first place prize. This latest move to sanction the event is one more effort by Taylor Road Productions to guarantee a fantastic inaugural Galveston World Classic.

Anne Craig, WPBA Office and Event Administrator, said of the Galveston World Classic, “I know many of our players, both Pros and Amateurs alike, have expressed keen interest in participating in Galveston World Classic. We look forward to seeing live web coverage featuring the best in the world, including those top WPBA Exempt Professionals who compete in the Women’s 9 Ball Division. Many thanks go out to Robert Rone and Louis Vickio of Taylor Road Productions for the hard work and dedication to promote such a major event.”

The Galveston World Classic event will be STREAMED LIVE and FREE at the event web site, and will be aired throughout Asia with 11 hours of programming on ESPN Star.

Bobby Rone of Taylor Road Productions said, “I think that sanctioning the event with the WPBA is important because it shows our dedication to supporting the women players by providing them a tournament with a larger prize fund in which all can play. We feel that the players will appreciate the payday and the fans will ultimately appreciate Taylor Road Productions making sure that the women pros have a chance to be in attendance.”

“I may have doubted it in the past, because I’m really a worrier, but now everything’s clear to me. This is what I want to do,” says Rubilen, the latest toast in Philippine sports since she captured the prestigious title in the World Women’s 10-Ball Championships in June in Manila.

The view from the top is not exactly new for the 27-year-old. Seven years ago, this diminutive cue artist ruled the region by winning the title in the 2002 Asian 8-Ball Championships in Singapore on her international debut.

But that first overseas victory didn’t seem to be the affirmation she was seeking.

Although widely considered as the next sensation in billiards, Rubilen decided to walk away from the scene the following year and turned her attention to the family business. She later worked in a call center. “I just tried it out,” she says of her call center stint. “It’s good to have some money of my own. There are less opportunities in women’s billiards so I thought about my future and decided to work.”

It wasn’t the first time that Rubilen took a break from the sport she had learned at 12. While most talented teen athletes aggressively chase after their ambitions, she opted to put her cue stick aside to focus on her accountancy course at the University of Santo Tomas.

Though a quitter she’s not, Rubilen points out, in a sport dominated by men, reality can sometimes dampen an athlete’s enthusiasm. In smoke-filled testosterone-charged billiards halls, it isn’t easy for female pool players to prevail.

“When I started out, I didn’t see billiards as a career,” the Cebu-born athlete admits. “I decided to stop because I didn’t see any future in the sport. If you really want to play, you had to be sure you have enough money to fall back on.”

That thought propelled her into a call center job for a year, followed by a sports bar venture and an almost-plunge into the corporate world. “My first dream was to become a CPA [certified public accountant]-lawyer and to go the corporate route. But I know the fulfillment wouldn’t be there,” she says.

The call center stint was fun, she adds, as it gave her a chance to encounter different personalities. “I was placed on the day shift and I was answering e-mail for an American client,” recalls Rubilen. Then she heard talks about the possibility of having a women’s division for the SEA Games. “I thought to myself, if the opportunity comes along, I’d readily resign and play billiards again.”

She eventually quit her call center job after making it to the national team, and easily clinched two gold medals in the 8-ball and 9-ball competitions of the 2005 Southeast Asian Games.

Still, that nebulous fear dogged her and sidetracked her anew.

“I have several goals in life, and one of them is to have a bar,” Rubilen shares of the sports bar she started with some friends. “It sounded exciting, but I realized later that it’s not really my passion. I drink occasionally but don’t go out on gimmicks that much. Eventually it started to sink in that it’s really billiards for me.”

But she admits that she wanted things to be clearly spelled out. “I asked for signs. I believe in signs,” she says.

She got one during the 2007 Amway Women’s World 9-Ball Championships in Taipei.

“I was praying so hard. I was asking for guidance,” Rubilen recounts. “I was asking God. ‘Please give me a sign if this is going to be my career path.’ Then I placed second. To me the message was: ‘This is your career path, but I won’t give you everything. It’s only second, so you’ll have to work hard for it.’ That was how I took it. I was really happy winning second. People wondered why I wasn’t even disappointed when I only got second. But for me, it was more than enough.”

In 2007, Rubilen also defended her 9-ball title in the Southeast Asian Games in Thailand and settled for a bronze in the 8-ball event. An inspirational book further validated her decision and sharpened her focus. “The book says that you should stick to your master talent. It says you have to evaluate and analyze your master talent – what it is you want –
and at the same time, what it is you can learn easily. It’s a God-given talent and in a way God has motivated me to develop it.”

That would have sealed off all her doubts about pursuing billiards, except that it came at a time when her family had to weather a financial crisis. “We’ve been going through rough times,” she says, adding that her family’s two business ventures had failed.

“Life was comfortable in Cebu,” she says. “When we came to Manila [in the early ’90s], we also had an easy time until our cargo forwarding business stopped operations in 2006. Then we ventured into a food business, but found it hard going as well. So we closed that too. We had to make a lot of sacrifices after that.”

Her father Roberto took a part-time job as a transcriptionist, says Rubilen, while her mother remains a full time homemaker. Her 19-year-old brother RJ continued with his Psychology course at De La Salle University.

Her family managed somehow, but things took a turn for the worse when Rubilen was booted out of the national team because of the internal rift among the officials and athletes of the Billiards and Snookers Congress of the Philippines.

“I was the breadwinner,” she says. “My income was solely from the government. Then it stopped coming. So it was really hard. I talked to my family. I told my brother that I might not be able to sustain his schooling. And he understood. This semester he was supposed to file a leave of absence and go to work to help the family.”

Unlike in years past, however, Rubilen soldiered on.

She shares: “I talked to my family and told them that this is where I find fulfillment. And they understood. That’s when I really focused on the game. I decided that this was going to be my career path.”

Her commitment paid off. Not only did Rubilen make history as the first Filipina to capture a world pool championship, but she also earned a whopping $20,000 grand prize.

“It’s a blessing,” she says after disposing of two-time world titlist Liu Shin Mei of Taipei in the finals and other top contenders in the early rounds, including the famous Jeanette “The Black Widow” Lee of the United States.

“Everything that’s happening is a blessing. For the family, it’s a relief. It’s a big help.”

But the relief is more evident in Rubilen as she revels in the accolades and the flurry of media interviews and photo shoots in the weeks that followed. “I gave myself a few days of rest just to savor the moment, to enjoy everything that’s been happening,” she says.

Still, she remains cautious in proclaiming herself the face of Philippine women’s billiards. In fact, she’s humbled every time someone notes how her historic feat has placed her in the same league as Filipino pool icons Efren “Bata” Reyes, Django Bustamante, Alex Pagulayan and Ronnie Alcano.

“I respect them, they’re up there,” says this champ. “But I also hope that we Filipinas can reach that level and give honor to the country.”

And with all financial worries lifted off her barely five-foot frame, a relaxed Rubilen now feels more ambitious.

“I really want to go to the US just to play and try out the US circuit,” she says. “I also visualize playing in the Olympics. They say if you visualize it, you can attract it. So maybe it will manifest. But aside from that, since billiards is not part of the Olympics yet, my main focus now is just to show my game at every tournament. That’s my main goal, but if I get lucky and win a tournament, it’s a bonus.”

Her current success also made her put all the past miscues in perspective. “It’s funny how God’s plan works. Sometimes you have doubts, but how could I have doubted Him?” She adds: “Everything that happened – all the sacrifices, the hard work, everything I’ve been through – made the victory even sweeter. Yun lang pala yun [so that’s what it was all about]. He just wanted things to be sweeter for me.”

Lone Filipino entry Leonardo “Dodong Panacan” Didal beat Korea’s Jeong Young Hwa, 11-8, to advance to the quarterfinals of the 9-ball womenspool player event in the 8th World Games yesterday in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

The Davao City bet Didal, a former Philippine Open runner-up will meet WPA No.1 and reigning World 8-ball title-holder German Ralf “Kaiser” Souquet in the next round. Souquet downed Australia’s David Reljic, 11-6, in the Last 16.

In other Last 16 matches, Stephan Cohen of France beat Satoshi Kawabata of Japan, 11-8; Bruno Muratore of Italy crushed Jason Theron of South Africa, 11-6 while Marcus Chamat of Sweden nipped Alejandro Carvajal of Chile, 11-8.

If Didal prevails over Souquet in the Last 8, he will face the winner of the match between Cohen and Muratore.

Also, Ivica Putnik of Croatia will slug it out with Yang Ching-Shun of Chinese-Taipei, Thorsten Hohmann of Germany opposite Luong Chi Dung of Vietnam and Kuo Po Cheng of Chinese-Taipei versus Shane Van Boening of the United States.

In the distaff side, American Jeanette “Black Widow” Lee made it to the quarterfinals with a 9-4 victory over Venezuela’s Carlynn Sanchez Torrealba as well Line Kjrosvik of Norway who upset Ga Young Kim of Korea, 9-6; Shu Han Chang of Chinese-Taipei beat Yukiko Oi of Japan, 9-5; Jasmin Ouschan of Austria clobbered Amalia Matas of Spain, 9-4, and Allison Fisher of Great Britain overpowered with Apsra Panchoo of South Africa, 9-3.

Other interesting match-up were Shin Mei Liu of Chinese-Taipei versus Akio Otani of Japan, Estelle Bijnen of the Netherlands versus Vivian Villareal of the United States and Yuan Chun Lin of Chinese-Taipei versus compatriot Pei Chen Tsai.

In the Men’s 3 Cushion Carom, Marco Zanetti of Italy opened his bid on a bright note by beating Alexander Salazar of Colomiba, 40-19.

In other results: Yung Kuo Yuan of Chinese-Taipei bested Sameh Sidhom of Egypt, 40-37, Tatsuo Arai of Japan waylaid Javier Teran of Ecuador, 40-22, Thorbjorn Blomdahl of Sweden hammered Jean-Christophe Roux of France, 40-23, and Kyong Roul Kim of Korea outplayed George Sakkas of Finland, 40-18.

In the Snooker competition: Shu Hung Ling of Chinese-Taipei blasted Francois Ellis of South Africa, 3-0, David Grace of Great Britain edged Atthasit Mahiihi of Thiland, 3-2, Soheil Vahedi of Iran whacked Glen Wilkinson of New Zealand, 3-1, Mohamed Awad of Egypt stunned Mike Dunn of Great Britain, 3-2, and Nigel Bond blanked Dene O Kane of New Zealand, 3-0.

The Southern Ute Indian Tribe in conjunction with Sky Ute Casino Resort are pleased to announce that the Casino/Resort will be hosting the Women’s Professional Billiards Association’s Colorado Classic September 16 – 20, 2009 that will be filmed to air October 18th, 2009 on ESPN. The competitive field will be made of 45 WPBA Exempt Professionals for 2009 with the remaining spots going to qualifiers and invited players.