A remarkable story from India where Igor Figueiredo of Brazil has reached the final of the IBSF world amateur championship.
Until April of this year, he had only ever played snooker on a ten foot table as is common in Brazil.
But today he defeated Yu Delu of China 7-4 in the semi-finals and will face former professional Alfie Burden, a 7-3 winner over Phil Williams, in the final.
South America has never produced a snooker professional but should Figueiredo win tomorrow he will be eligible to join the main tour next season.
12 comments:
Presumably if Alfie Burden wins he'll also gain a place?
Yes, and it will also give me the opportunity to use the headline 'Pots it all about, Alfie'
Let's hope Figueiredo wins then for your sake Dave. :)
alfie will win, im sure
For our sake!
I suspect the punning opportunities with Igor Figueiredo will be excellent as well, but I won't make any suggestions as I am nowhere near as good as Dave.
you can read more on global snooker and see all the results from right through the tournament.
Ng On Yee, only 19, won the Ladies today, the first Hong Kong since Marco Fu in 1997 to take an IBSF title.
Darren Morgan beat Dene O'Kane 6-0 for the Masters title.
Igor is the real fairytale of this event.
You can follow all the scores on Wednesday live on Global Snooker, now half dead in Hyderabad!
I'd also add that you've never seen a media feeding frenzy like we've had in India.
Live non stop tv coverage every day of all three events. And that live coverage is also going out across China, Thailand and other Asian countries. Mercifully you're not getting in the UK otherwise you'd have been subjected to my rather amateurish attempts at commentary!
Alfie is a star in the commentary box but he'll have to let someone else do the job tomorrow while he's playing!
There a hoardes of journos and snappers in a very busy media centre.
The coverage across India alone is something we would very much envy to see in the UK of the pro circuit.
Amazingly, Ng On Yee was never won any Ladies' title in Hong Kong, but now crowned IBSF World Ladies Champion.
I'm from HK and I read from the papers that the Ladies' final was halted when Ng was leading 4:1 and the officials asked her for a doping test. Eventually she won, but I think doping test should be conducted immediately after the match but not in the middle of a match.
Is it a common practice in amateur competitions to stop a match in progress for doping test? I have never seen it in other sports and I'm sure Usain Bolt wouldn't like it.
Not played on a 12 foot table until April this year??!! Wow, it's absolutely astonishing that he's got to the final!! And currently only 5-4 to Alfie!
I think it is worth giving a wild card to Igor to enter next season's pro tour. He may help open up a whole new market.
When Liu Song was runner-up to Neil Robertson in the World U-21, he was also given a main tour wildcard next season. Base on this, Igor have every chance of getting a place.
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