STORY AND PHOTO BY TED LERNER
(Fujairah, UAE)–World 8-ball supremacy, along with $35,000 in cash, is assured of a home in Taiwan for the next year, as Fu Che We and Chang Jun Lin both won their semi-final matches this afternoon at the Fujairah Tennis and Country Club.
The all-Taiwan final between Fu and Chang will begin later today at 5pm local time(GMT +4). The match will be a race to 11, alternate break.
Fu completely dominated China’s Liu Haitao winning easily 9-3. Fu has been playing red hot 8-ball in the last few days, breaking well and barely missing any balls. It’s a recipe for success in professional 8-ball and has brought the veteran campaigner into his first world championship final.
Chang’s semi-final match vs. Chris Melling was much closer but the 26 year old from Taipei put in a brilliant performance in overcoming the confident Englishman. Melling raced out to a 2-0 but then saw Chang, with his deliberate style, crawl back in the match.
Chang took the lead at 4-3 and never looked back. Melling had trouble all afternoon with the break, consistently coming up dry. Chang took advantage and built up a 6-3 lead. Melling battled back to 6-5, but Chang broke and ran for a 7-5 lead. Melling again broke dry in rack 13 and Chang pushed the lead up to 3. Melling had one last fight back, moving the score to 8-7. But Chang held his nerve in rack 16 to get over the finish line first.
The winner of the World 8-ball Championship will receive $20,000, while the runner up will receive $15,000.
The WPA will be providing up to the minute coverage of the finals on its website, www.wpa-pool.com, including live scoring of the match , as well as blow by blow coverage via the WPA’s Twitter page, @poolwpa.
