The 2022 Seattle Snooker Open was won this month by Cheang Ciing Yoo, as the former United States National Snooker Championship runner-up cruised to victory in this inaugural event hosted by Ox Billiards in Seattle.

The Seattle Snooker Open is the main event of the first season of the Washington State Snooker League, and attracted a full-field of players coming from the local Washington state area in addition to competitors entering from states as far and wide as Oregon, Maryland, and countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom.

The players were divided into four groups with the top two players from each group advancing into the quarterfinals.

Group A was won by Angus Lieu with Jie Ma claiming second place. Jie is a well-known and talented Seattle pool player who dabbles in snooker but has not partcipated in any previous snooker tournaments at Ox Billiards. He has great technique and played very well during his group matches.

Yoo, who lost in the final of the 2019 United States National Snooker Championship to Ahmed Aly Elsayed, won Group B without dropping a frame. Another fine Seattle pool player Larry Leach, who is a recent convert to snooker after becoming hooked on the sport, gained the group's second place.

Varun Juneja won Group C, and he is an established snooker player in the United States as a previous winner of a United States Snooker Association (USSA) Tour event. The runner-up position in the group went to Prathamesh Sawant, who is also a player with strong snooker roots.

David Brock from the United Kingdom won Group D, and was expected to do well in this tournament given his snooker experience and skill. Daniel Sardoncillo, a very well known Seattle area semi-pro pool player, claimed second place in the group. Sardoncillo has only been playing snooker for a little while, but has immense natural potting ability and is determined to master the sport.

A couple of players of note who did not progress from their groups were Kaarin Lysen, who started playing snooker not too long ago and has a great eye for the game and very keen to improve. And Marissa Du who started playing pool as a child and has recently tried snooker. Du watches a lot of snooker and has absorbed certain strategies that she implements on the baize.

In the firecely contested quarterfinal ties, Lieu went 2-0 ahead of Sardoncillo before being forced into a deciding frame of which he pulled off for a 3-2 success. Juneja lost the first frame to Leach Leach, but he hit back strongly to record a 3-1 victory. Yoo won three straight hard-fought frames against Sawant to book his place in the semifinals, and Brock won a marathon 3-2 tie against Jie.

Juneja defeated Lieu in the first sesmifinal 3-0, and Yoo proved too strong for Brock as he took full control of the other semifinal to win 3-0.

On their path to the final, Juneja had lost only two frames while Yoo had not dropped a single one. This best-of-seven frames final was anticipated to go close, however Yoo ran away with it to secure a comprehensive 4-0 win to claim the title.

Ox Billiards is now fast gaining the reputation of being one of the premier hosts of snooker events in the United States, and this will be enhanced this fall when it will stage this year's United States National Snooker Championship from September 2 - 5.

Tournament information provided by Michael Dominguez, proprietor of Ox Billiards.