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Women�s 9-ball World Championship 2011
Tennis Hall of Training Base of Hunnan,
Liaoning 32
Hunnan Mid Road
Hunnan New District
Shenyang
110168
China
www.wpa-pool.com - Twitter - brackets (pdf) - live score
www.my147.com - official coverage - live stream video

22 - 25 September 2011

This photograph courtesy of MY147.com - used by Pro9 with express permission.
BI-G THING IN A SMALL PACKAGE

BI ZHU QING IS THE SURPRISE WINNER OF THE 2011 WOMEN'S WORLD 9-BALL CHAMPIONSHIP WITH A 9-7 WIN OVER CHEN SIMING.

Bi Zhu Qing stands no more than 4�11�. But Sunday night in Shenyang, this tiny woman became a giant of women�s pool and a sporting hero in the most populace nation on earth. This after the relatively unknown from Beijing defeated world number 2 and heavy favorite Chen Siming 9-7 to capture the 2011 Women�s World 9-ball Championship.

Bi�s title win capped an incredible day for the 23 year old. Up until Sunday, she was mostly unknown beyond her professional peers in China, where the women�s game is wildly popular and its top players are legitimate stars. She is ranked number 7 in China and 81st worldwide and had never won any pool tournaments of note.

That all changed on the last day of the Women's World 9-Ball Championship in this northeastern city of 7 million people. After she quietly worked her way through the field at the Liaoning Hunnan Sports Training Arena beginning Thursday, Bi shocked defending champion and world number one Fu Xiaofang in Sunday�s semi-final, 9-6. Playing the role of underdog perfectly, Bi played seemingly without a care in the world, while the pressure of stardom and expectation appeared at times to get to Fu.

Bi�s finals match against Chen later in the evening, played in front of over 1200 people, didn�t go quite as smoothly as the semi-final against Fu, and she could have very nearly lost. But Bi freewheeled long enough to build up a decent cushion and held on down the nervy stretch to cross the finish line first.

For Chen the loss was a major disappointment, but like Fu earlier, the mantle of expectation seemed to weigh heavily on her shoulders. The 17 year old pool prodigy has won three big tournaments in the last year and a half, including a gold medal in snooker in the Asian games. As a result she has built up a major following and entered the finals a heavy favorite to capture the crown. Chen, though, spent most of the middle part of the match looking uncomfortable and slightly out of sorts, as her deadly accuracy failed her on several occasions. Chen made a great fight back at the end, but it was too little too late.

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