Aly Takes On Debutant Yi In Final Face-Off
filed on Sunday, July 4, 2010. 4:49pm PT/USA
Ahmed Aly Elsayed has booked his place in the final of the 2010 United States National Snooker Championship, where he will defend his title against Championship debutant Yi Fei Mei at the Embassy Billiards Club in San Gabriel, California.
Yi totally dominated his semifinal against the former finalist Jian Qiang Wang from New York, as the Californian raced through four straight frames to quickly secure his final appearance.
Reigning champion Aly however needed a bit more time to come through against the 2004 runner-up Raymond Fung, who he actually lost to in the final of a United States Snooker Association (USSA) Tour event back in February.
It was though a rerun of last year's National Championship semifinal between the pair at the Prince Snooker Club in Brooklyn, NY, and on that occasion Aly came through a relatively comfortable victor.
The four semifinalists of the 2010 United States National Snooker Championship (pictured left to right) Jian Qiang Wang, Raymond Fung, Ahmed Aly Elsayed and Yi Fei Mei Photo © SnookerUSA.com |
Fung had the advantage in the initial frames of their semifinal encounter this year, as he held 1-0 and 2-1 leads, but Aly took the fourth frame on the final colored balls and this gave him the momentum to forge ahead.
Frame five easily went the way of the Champion and the sixth frame proved decisive as Aly sealed it on the final colored balls and secure a well earned 4-2 success.
Semifinals (Best-of-7-frames) |
Match ID |
Player |
Result |
Player |
SF1 |
Ahmed Aly Elsayed (New York) |
4 - 2 |
Raymond Fung (New York) |
Frame scores and 30+ breaks in brackets (Aly's score states first): 1st. 30-64 2nd. 59-52 3rd. 49-69 4th. 60-44 5th. 68-18 6th. 55-39 |
|
SF2 |
Yi Fei Mei (California) |
4 - 0 |
Jian Qiang Wang (New York) |
Frame scores and 30+ breaks in brackets (Yi's score states first): 1st. 78-34 2nd. 50-37 3rd. 60-9 4th. 52-40 |
The USSA would like to thank the Tweeten Fibre Company for being an official supplier to this year's Championship.