Firstly, congratulations to my friend Kevin Cheng who won this year’s U.S. Open. He played great the entire event and deserved to win. He also recently came off a major tournament win in Beijing defeating Wu in the finals. Looks like he might just fire and starts winning everything.
I also wanted to share my observations during the tournament. Living in America, we don’t often get a chance to watch the players from Asia compete. So, I took this opportunity to watch their matches as often as I could. One match that stuck out to me was Chang Jung Lin vs Li He Wen. Li He Wen must have broke and ran about 7 racks that match, winning something like 11-3. He pretty much denied Chang much of an opportunity that match. The few balls he had to shoot, were long and awkward, and very hard to come with, especially being in the chair for so long. Another match was between Liu Hai Tao and Hsu Kai Lun. I believe Liu Hai Tao has a background in Chinese 8-ball. In my opinion, his mechanics are amazing, he has a snooker stance, and his stroke has almost perfect timing. He is a tremendous shotmaker, but watching the way the he cued the ball, no shot really looked hard, everything looked routine, like a walk in the park. Liu Hai Tao denied Hsu Kai Lun many opportunities that set also. It seemed like that was a trend going on several matches, many great players lost because they were denied opportunities. Their opponents hardly missed balls and kept them in their chairs the majority of the match. One match I didn’t see but I heard about was Justin Bergman playing Kevin Cheng. Kevin told me he must have broke and ran 6 racks, and Justin might have broke and ran 5, Kevin won 11-10. What really dawned upon me, is that at this level missing balls is a luxury. Top players don’t expect to miss balls and return to the table, they expect to be punished for it every time, and usually expecting it to cost them a few games, and sometimes even the set.
What I also noticed is that these players really pride themselves in representing their country. For the most part, they are international players and represent their country everywhere they go, so they have some sense of patriotism. You also see this with the Filipinos a lot. If they win a tournament, they not only won for themselves, but also for their country. I feel that we don’t see that attitude or pride so much with American players, maybe with the few exceptions such as: Van Boening, Strickland, and Archer. I wonder if the level of play in America would be stronger if the players prided themselves more in representing their country? This is just a thought that really stood out to me watching this event.
Sorry for the late post, but I still wanted to get this out.
Thank you,
Mike Wong
I also wanted to share my observations during the tournament. Living in America, we don’t often get a chance to watch the players from Asia compete. So, I took this opportunity to watch their matches as often as I could. One match that stuck out to me was Chang Jung Lin vs Li He Wen. Li He Wen must have broke and ran about 7 racks that match, winning something like 11-3. He pretty much denied Chang much of an opportunity that match. The few balls he had to shoot, were long and awkward, and very hard to come with, especially being in the chair for so long. Another match was between Liu Hai Tao and Hsu Kai Lun. I believe Liu Hai Tao has a background in Chinese 8-ball. In my opinion, his mechanics are amazing, he has a snooker stance, and his stroke has almost perfect timing. He is a tremendous shotmaker, but watching the way the he cued the ball, no shot really looked hard, everything looked routine, like a walk in the park. Liu Hai Tao denied Hsu Kai Lun many opportunities that set also. It seemed like that was a trend going on several matches, many great players lost because they were denied opportunities. Their opponents hardly missed balls and kept them in their chairs the majority of the match. One match I didn’t see but I heard about was Justin Bergman playing Kevin Cheng. Kevin told me he must have broke and ran 6 racks, and Justin might have broke and ran 5, Kevin won 11-10. What really dawned upon me, is that at this level missing balls is a luxury. Top players don’t expect to miss balls and return to the table, they expect to be punished for it every time, and usually expecting it to cost them a few games, and sometimes even the set.
What I also noticed is that these players really pride themselves in representing their country. For the most part, they are international players and represent their country everywhere they go, so they have some sense of patriotism. You also see this with the Filipinos a lot. If they win a tournament, they not only won for themselves, but also for their country. I feel that we don’t see that attitude or pride so much with American players, maybe with the few exceptions such as: Van Boening, Strickland, and Archer. I wonder if the level of play in America would be stronger if the players prided themselves more in representing their country? This is just a thought that really stood out to me watching this event.
Sorry for the late post, but I still wanted to get this out.
Thank you,
Mike Wong
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