Players Cue Up For Championship Knockout Stage
filed on Friday, July 2, 2010. 9:05pm PT/USA
After the conclusion of the group stage of the 2010 United States National Snooker Championship, the qualified players are now preparing themselves for the knockout stage of the event which commences tomorrow at the Embassy Billiards Club in San Gabriel.
Four of the six third place players have been randomly drawn to play in the Preliminary Round which will commence at 11am PT tomorrow, with the two winners of these best-of-five-frame matches advancing into the Round Of 16.
The winner and runner-up of each of the six groups advanced into a predetermined position in the Round Of 16 draw, with the defending champion Ahmed Aly Elsayed, who finished top of Group A, playing the winner of the Preliminary Round match between Michael Chan and Paul Chao.
The winner of Group B, Jian Qiang Wang, will play the winner of the Preliminary Round match between Alex Kopel and Tommy Chen.
The most intriguing match of the Round Of 16 has to be between last year's runner-up and former champion Ajeya Prabhakar against the 2004 runner-up Raymond Fung. Prabhakar won Group D without losing a frame though would not have expected to have faced Fung in his next match. However the player from Brooklyn, NY, surprisingly finished third in his group, and so was randomly drawn to face the Californian in the Round Of 16.
The complete draw is as follows below, with the quarterfinals being completed by the end of tomorrow's play.
Preliminary Round (Best-of-5-frames) |
Match ID |
Player |
|
Player |
P1 |
Michael Chan (California) |
vs. |
Paul Chao (California) |
P2 |
Alex Kopel (California) |
vs. |
Tommy Chen (New York) |
|
Round Of 16 (Best-of-5-frames) |
Match ID |
Player |
|
Player |
K1 |
Ahmed Aly Elsayed (New York) |
vs. |
Winner of Match P1 |
K2 |
Cheang Ciing Yoo (Washington) |
vs. |
Romil Azemat (Arizona) |
K3 |
Zhen Yan Y. (California) |
vs. |
Henry Wong (New Jersey) |
K4 |
Ajeya Prabhakar (California) |
vs. |
Raymond Fung (New York) |
K5 |
Tony Annigoni (California) |
vs. |
Chen Yan Jun (New York) |
K6 |
Ernst Bezemer (Texas) |
vs. |
Yi Fei Mei (California) |
K7 |
Tim Lee (New York) |
vs. |
Tom Kollins (Illinois) |
K8 |
Jian Qiang Wang (New York) |
vs. |
Winner of Match P2 |
The USSA would like to thank the Tweeten Fibre Company for being an official supplier to this year's Championship.