Kimura Captures First United States National Snooker Title

Kimura Captures First United States National Snooker TitleCalifornia’s Paul Kimura has won the 2006 United States National Snooker Championship title with a 5-3 final defeat over Arizona’s Romil Azemat at the Embassy Billiards Club in San Gabriel, California.Azemat, who has competed twice in the IBSF World Under-21 Snooker Championship and was part of Team USA that lost narrowly to Team Canada in last month’s Can-Am Snooker Challenge in Las Vegas, went into the final as favorite after putting out the defending champion and number one seed, Nevada’s George Lai, in the semifinals, in what was the match of the Championship which went down to the final black ball in the final frame after Lai had held a 3-0 lead.It was Kimura however who got off the best start in the final after he raced into a three frames to one lead, but Azemat battled back and a break of 44 helped him to secure the fifth frame and he then leveled the match at 3-3 when he claimed the six frame by 56 points to 21.
Kimura again nudged ahead after winning the seventh frame on the final black ball, and ultimately gained success by carving out victory in the eighth frame by 61 points to 33, to capture his first United States National Snooker Championship title.On their way to the final Kimura had gained respective wins over California’s Jeff Szafransky and Orwin Ham, and also over New York’s Raymond Fung, while Azemat fought off the respective challenges of Chrstopher Szarek and Rajneesh Bansal, both of Illinois, and then California’s Truman Wu before that epic semifinal match with the defending champion, George Lai.Vaishal Talati of Illinois won the Embassy Billiards Club United States Plate Championship with a 2-0 final victory over Nevada’s Ronald Hui.The United States Snooker Association would again like to thank the Embassy Billiards Club for their help and support in staging this year’s Championship, and for providing top quality Championship snooker facilities to play on.Results from quarterfinals:QuarterfinalsGeorge Lai (NV) def. Tom Kollins (IL) 4-3Romil Azemat (AZ) def. Truman Wu (CA) 4-3Paul Kimura (CA) def. Orwin Ham (CA) 4-2Raymond Fung (NY) def. Kai C. Wong (CA) 4-2SemifinalsAzemat def. Lai 4-3Kimura def. Fung 4-2FinalKimura def. Lai 5-3

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