YUSHAN, China, March 30 (Xinhua) -– Home players won both the men's and women's crowns at the 2018 Chinese Pool World Championship as Zheng Yubo and Han Yu beat Chris Melling of Britain and Liu Shasha in their respective finals here on Friday.
Han started the women's all-Chinese final by storming to a 13-5 lead before the interval. Liu returned to the table to surprisingly take nine out of the following 11 frames and cut the deficit to 15-14.
However, Liu lost her chance to tie the match in the 30th frame, which Han took for her match point 16-14. Han then sealed the final 17-14 for her first Chinese Pool World Championship title.
"It could have been a 15-15 tie but I lost the chance, that's sports, just one shot could be the decider of the game. Congratulations to Han Yu, she deserved to win the title," said Liu.
"It's very hard for me to calm down, this trophy is a reward for my hard work. To win a Chinese Pool World Championship is my childhood dream and finally the dream comes true for the little girl," said Han.
In the men's final, Melling had an early lead 10-4 before Zheng managed to narrow the gap to 12-11 after the halftime break.
During the night session, Melling extended his lead again to 17-13. Then the moments came for Zheng as he clawed back one frame after the other to tie the match 19-all.
After Zheng overtook the lead 20-19 in the best-of-41 final, Melling dropped the cue ball at the beginning of the 40th frame, and Zheng finished the match 21-19 to the cheers of the home crowds.
"I made some adjustments at the interval, and I was the luckier one after it, I want to thank the support of my parents, my coach and my fans," said Zheng.
Shi Hanqing of China and Kim Ga Young of South Korea ranked the third in the men's and women's groups.
The championship, which ran into its fourth year, offered a total prize money of three million RMB (about 474,285 U.S. dollars), attracting more than 400 players from 43 countries and regions to Yushan, a county in Jiangxi Province.
