The Brunswick Metro Korea International Championships Day 3

The Brunswick Metro Korea International Championships Day 3 The westerners had a tough time on Day 3. Williams took on straight shooting Junior Champ Hijikata and trailed 3-0 from the start. Williams came back and at 5-5 made a safety error which cost him the match as Hijikata broke and ran the set out for a 9-5 win. Ralph Eckert of Germany, famous for his instructional books and a former teacher of Thorsten Hohmann, was no match for Japan's Kusano . So Shahiah of the UK took another bad loss to Korea's Shin Young Park. Lee Chenman of Hong Kong & British citizen was knocked out by Japan's Tanaka. The coup de grace of the day was MIka Immonen as he won his first match of the day but then barely escaped from 7-3 down then a 8-6 deficit to Korea's Young Joo Kim to win 9-8. But next Mika played against Korea's #1 Young Hwa Jeong and Jeong cruised through for a 9-4 win to eliminate the former World Champion.
Immonen had finished 2nd the first year and then won the event last year."The Koreans have definitely improved tremendously the last 2 years since I first came here." commented Mika after the match. "They(Korean players) used to be off the radar scope, but now you can't afford to take any of them lightly...even the unknowns. I took some time off the last 2 weeks from playing and so my performance wasnt that great here. This has turned out to be quite a tough tournament to win." On the womens side, the foreigners were not faring any better. USA's Kathleen Lawless and Tina Meraglio both were eliminated on Day 3. Meraglio's much improved game was still no match for Korea's former #1 Sung Hyun Jung as she was whitewashed 7-0. Japan's Hitomi Hijikata and Tanaka were also eliminated by the Koreans. The foreign favorite Miyuki Sakai, who won the event in 2004, faced Korea's #1 and teenage phenom Yuram Cha. Cha seem to win with veteran like ease 7-4 over Sakai to move into the semi finals. When the smoke cleared, it was an all Korean women final four for TV day. Back to the mens side, Williams bounced back with a win over Korea's Min Hu Baek 9-6 to make it to the last 16 round then overcame an 8-4 deficit to eliminate Hiroshi Takenaka 10-8 to move into the quarter finals. Korea's Kun Jae Lee came back from 8-1 down to 9-9 only to lose the final game to Japan's Masaaki Higaki. Japan's Kusano eliminated Korea's #3 Shin Young Park and then Tanaka eliminated Korea #2 Woong Dae Kim. THe lone Korean was #1 KPT Young Hwa Jeong who faced World Junior Runner Up Hijikata. Jeong led the match early at 4-0 and had a chance to go 5-0 shooting the nine ball but missed. Then in a whirlwind the tide changed and Hijikata had Jeong 7-5. Fate twisted again and gave Jeong the lead at 9-7 but a bad safety gave the young Hijikata a chance and he ran the rack and broke and ran the final 2 racks including 4 balls on the break in the case game to the dismay of Jeong and the Korean fans. THe last match of the night was Williams, the sole non-Japanese in the event that was left facing Go Takami. Japan's Hijikata, Kusano, and Tanaka had all advanced to the TV semi finals the following day.Williams led the match early on and reached an 8-4 lead. A position error on the 8 ball led to a missed 9 Ball and gave Takami a chance with a wicked cut on the 9 Ball which he followed up with 2 break and runs. At 8-7, Williams took advancrtage of a dry break from Go and banked the 1 ball to reach the hill 9-7. Williams broke, made a ball, and then played a saftey on the one ball which left Takami no shot. Takami went for a wild shot to displace the balls and received a lucky reult leaving Williams a do or die cross corner bank shot. Willima smissed and Takami ran out and broke the final game at 9-9 and ran out to a 4-9 combo for the win making it an all Japan semi Finals for the men who are joining the all Korean semi finals for the women on Day 4. The Brunswick Metro Korea International Championships is produced by Dragon Promotions and is part of the Brunswick KPT Tour and televised on Korea's #1 network MBC ESPN.

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