Vincent Facquet With a field of international pool superstars on hand, the Etisalat WPA World 8-ball Championships moved into the elimination stages in Fujairah, UAE, on Monday, April 5th, 2010.  What I find to be most interesting about these high-caliber events is that while we in the U.S. may be familiar with names like Shane Van Boening , Mika Immonen , and Thorsten Hohmann , there are always a number of players from other parts of the world who have been flying under the radar who might surprise us. There have already been some upsets in the early rounds… and reigning World 10-ball Champion & US Open 9-ball Champion Mika Immonen fell victim to one of them, in the form of France’s Vincent Facquet, who defeated him 8-6.  In other highlights from the first day, England’s Karl Boyes , Darren Appleton , and Scott Higgins all made it through the right side of the bracket, along with USA’s lone representative Shane Van Boening and German favorites Thorsten Hohmann and Ralf Souquet .

Share on Facebook