Thorsten Hohmann and Siming Chen was declared the champion of the 2011 Philippine Open Pool Championship held at the jampacked SM Megamall Megatrade Hall, Mandaluyong City, Philippines.
Hohmann, the German cue artist have defeated the more popular Ralf Souquet also from Germany with a score of 11-10 in favor of Hohmann. Ralf Souquet had previously enjoyed a lead of 10-9 but he was not able to maintain it and finally bowed down to Hohmann who captured the most coveted crown.
Thorsten Hohmann had earlier dominated Filipino Carlo Biado and Chinese Ricky Yang before reaching to the finals and engaged in a gruesome duel against his compatriot Ralf Souquet. Souquet on on the other hand had previously eliminated the best performing Filipino in the tournament World’ s No. 2, Antonio Lining.
Meanwhile the women’s division was given to Chinese Simen Cheng by defeating Kelly Fisher from Britain with a score of 9-3. She dominated the entire match. The 17-year-old Chinese had received $20,000.
Hohmann, the 2003 World 9 Ball title-holder had received a total of $30,000. The champion in an interview was quoted as saying. “I have many victories before and the first one should be the most memorable, the world championship. But everybody wants to win a tournament in the Philippines because this is home to pool”.
The 2011 Philippine Open World Pool Championship was sponsored and backed by the Billiards and Snooker Congress of the Philippines, earning 400 ranking points. The event which draws 64 prominent billiards players from around the world was a success.