Fisher and Kim to Square Off for Amway Cup Title

By InsidePOOL Staff

The Eighth Annual Amway Cup is coming to an exciting conclusion in Taipei, Taiwan, as just four ladies remain. After Sunday night's completion of the quarter- and semifinals, Monday's two matches will see Allison Fisher and InsidePOOL Magazine's 2004 Player of the year, Ga-Young Kim do battle for the title, while Shin-Mei Liu and Karen Corr will play for third place.

The event kicked off o­n Friday, May 6, with a full field of the world's best female 9-ball players.  The format of the tournament divides the field into two brackets, with the top three from each moving o­n.  In the first group, there was a three-way tie for first, as Kim, Karen Corr, and Liu all finished with a 3-2 record, earning 11 points each. "The Duchess of Doom," who earned 13 points for her 4-1 record, won the second bracket. Her o­nly blemish came when Yuan-Chun Lin defeated her 7-3 in Saturday's second round of matches.

Finishing in a tie for second was Jennifer Chen, Lin, and Belguim's Wendy Jans, as they all wrapped up their play with 3-2 records. Tiebreakers were used to determine who would stay and who would go, and it was Chen who fell out of the rankings. Both top seeds, Fisher and Kim, got byes while the other two competitors dueled it out to see who would advance.

Sunday night's quarterfinal matches saw Corr oust Lin 7-2 and Liu send home Jans 7-5. The evening then wrapped up with the two semifinal matches, featuring Fisher against Corr and Liu versus Kim. Both matches were won fairly easily, as Fisher and Kim both moved o­n to Monday's championship match, leaving Corr and Lui to battle for third place.

There was also another major announcement made during the event. In May 2006, the Amway Cup will become the WPA Women's World Championships. The format will be similar, but the field will increase to 48, and it will also be televised live.

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