Rise of the upstarts
Rise of the upstarts Shock upsets send the big boys packing as the field at the 2014 World 9-ball Championship gets down to the final 32. By Ted Lerner/WPA Press Officer Photos Courtesy of Richard Walker (Doha, Qatar)–Pool’s next generation of superstars took a giant leap towards claiming their place in the sun today, producing a slew of shocking and unexpected results as the field at the 2014 World 9-ball Championship was cut in half from 64 players down to 32. It was an extraordinary day given over to unknown upstarts, newcomers, fearless young guns, and a few wily but unheralded veterans, all of whom seemed to collectively state to pool’s elite that it was time for some new and different names to grab the headlines for a change. So how bad was it for pool’s biggest names? Well, here’s a statistic that could come straight from the crime blotter; five former world 9-ball champions, and the defending champion Thorsten Hohmann all went down to defeat. Heavy favorites like the Philippines’ Dennis Orcollo and Lee […]