Ga Young Kim Wins the WPBA U.S. Open

Ga Young Kim Wins the WPBA U.S. OpenBy InsidePOOL StaffIn a stunning reversal of last year’s WPBA U.S. Open, Ga Young Kim triumphed over defending champion Karen Corr in a hill-hill match to take the title, exactly the opposite of last year’s outcome. The event was held at the Sandia Casino in Albuquerque, NM, and was sponsored by Brunswick Billiards, the American Poolplayers Association, Centennial Billiard Balls, Iwan Simonis, Ozone Billiards, and the Sandia Casino.
Corr suffered a defeat on Saturday by Kim 9-3 and was sent to the one-loss side. There she bested Jeanette Lee 9-8 in order to earn her spot in the quarterfinal match on Sunday. The WPBA’s number-one ranked player, Allison Fisher, was eliminated by fellow snooker star Kelly Fisher the night before 9-6, and Kelly progressed to the quarterfinals as well. The matches were shortened on Sunday to a race to 7 instead of 9 in deference to the ESPN taping. Fisher and Corr were even all the way through the match, with Corr only gaining a two-game lead at one point. At hill-hill with Corr breaking, she had a clear shot on the 1 ball after the break and cleared the table easily to progress to the semifinal match.Melissa Herndon, who was defeated in the hot seat match by Kim the evening before, was waiting for Corr. The players traded games with Herndon retaining the lead until it reached 4-all. At that point, Herndon sent the cue ball following after the 7 into the corner pocket, and Corr took the lead. “The Dragon Lady” tied it up, but she fouled on a bank shot in the next game, and Corr took the hill. In the last rack, another foul by Herndon put Corr into the finals against Kim.The single-elimination finals started off with Kim taking the first game. Corr had some uncharacteristic missed that put her opponent up to a 5-2 lead. A missed safety attempt by Kim left an out for Corr, and then a break and run put “The Irish Invader” within a game at 5-4 Kim. The Korean made three balls on her next break and cleared the table to reach the hill, but a 9 ball on the break and a foul by Kim evened the score at 6 apiece. With no pocket for the 1 ball in the last rack, Corr pushed, but she pushed out too far. Kim had a clear shot at the 1 in the side, which she fired in and then preceded to run the rest of the balls for the 7-6 victory.However, the bright side for Corr turned out to be that she recaptured the number-one spot in the WPBA, putting Allison Fisher one notch below at number two. Results: 1st Ga Young Kim $12,5002nd Karen Corr $9,0003rd Melissa Herndon $7,0004th Kelly Fisher $5,5005th Allison Fisher, Visit InsidePOOL for the latest news from the WPBA and the U.S. Open.

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