Final 32 at Predator World Straight Pool Championship

The round robin stage of the Predator World 14.1 Championship has concluded, and just four players remain unbeaten with a total of 32 players advancing to the next stage, and 32 players going home. The Iceman Mika Immonen is the front runner with a clean record and has kept his opponent's scores low to a total of 210 balls made against him. Nick Vandenberg of Holland is the #2 seed, undefeated with 238 balls against him. Archer and Feijen were #3 and #4 seeds respectively for the upcoming 32 man chart.

The top player from each group are seeded #1 through #8, with #1 playing #32 seed (a player who finished 4th in their group, #32 being the worst record of all the #4s). Defending champion Oliver Ortmann GER won his group, but surprise group winners included Pennsylvania's David Daya who won a qualifier, Filipino Champion Francisco Bustamante who is making his 14.1 debut, and event promoter Charlie Williams winning group #2.

Group #2 was unusual in that five players had five wins and two losses. Normally 5 wins would assure a player of advancing, but it was Scotland's Jonni Fulcher taking the baddest beat and not qualifying with 5 wins. Surprisingly it was 2006 World 14.1 Champion Thorsten Hohmann who barely made it through by only a margin of 10 balls over Fulcher. They tied in win/loss records and it came down to total balls made.

Jasmin Ouschan of Austria won a thrilling battle over Mohamed Hakim 100-80 to advance with only three wins in her group, the only female to crack the top 32. Earlier in the day she had a 90 ball high run against Poland's Babica, which is the record for any woman in any 14.1 event in history! Yu Ram Cha of Korea though had the best record of all the women with four wins and three losses. Unfortunately in her group she lost the tie breaker with Bernie Pettipiece. "I wish I could move on to play the next stage, but I accomplished my goal of the event which was to win four matches," said Cha.

Legendary U.S. players Mike Sigel, Bobby Hunter, and Allen Hopkins also all advanced. Out of 39 American entrants in the event, only 16 advanced, including hopefuls John Schmidt, Johnny Archer, Tony Robles and Danny Harriman. Out of 16 Europeans, 13 advanced, including sharp shooters Ralf Souquet and Oliver Ortmann Final 32 players after round-robin:

01 Mika Immomen (Finland)
02 Nick VanDenberg (Netherlands)
03 Johnny Archer (USA)
04 Neils Feijen (Netherlands)
05 Francisco Bustamante (Philippines)
06 Oliver Ortmann (Germany)
07 David Daya (USA)
08 Charlie Williams (USA)
09 Ralf Souquet (Germany)
10 Konstantin Stepanov (Russia)
11 Mike Dechaine (USA)
12 Mike Sigel (USA)
13 Huidji See (Netherlands)
14 Corey Deuel (USA)
15 Radoslaw Babica (Poland)
16 Bob Maidhof (USA)
17 John Schmidt (USA)
18 Allen Hopkins (USA)
19 Steve Lipsky (USA)
20 Chavez (USA)
21 Danny Harriman (USA)
22 Bobby Hunter (USA)
23 Thomas Engert (USA)
24 Vincent Facquet (France)
25 Thorsten Hohmann (Germany)
26 Dominic Jentsch (Germany)
27 Danny Barouty (USA)
28 Pettipiece (USA)
29 Mike Davis (USA)
30 Raj Hundal (India)
31 Tony Robles (USA)
32 Jasmin Ouschan (Austria)

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