by Jerry Forsyth, WPA Press Officer

The qualifying rounds are over and the main event has begun at the sports complex of the Shenyang Jianzhu University in Shenyang. The day was highlighted by the grand opening ceremony where local government and sports officials welcomed the players and fans to the event.

The venue at the university is well suited for the competition. The tables are all located well beneath the main seating area so that the fans have a great view of several tables at once. There is also a separate television arena and the event is being broadcast live throughout China.

It is, of course, still very early in the event but there have been some surprising exits made already. Among notables who have been knocked out of the tournament are Julie Kelly of the USA, Yukiko Oui of Japan, Pang Xueling of China, and Angel Paglia of the USA.

View the Kappa 2009 Women’s World 9-Ball Championships tournament brackets

The qualifying rounds are over and the main event has begun at the sports complex of the Shenyang Jianzhu University in Shenyang.

The knockouts will come in earnest tomorrow as more of the one-loss rounds progress. This stage of the tournament is a double-elimination group stage with eight players in each group. Of those eight only four of each group will survive to make it into the final stage, which will be a single-elimination format of thirty-two players. Eight players have already made it through to the single-elimination stage: Karen Corr, Pan Xiaoting, Chen Xue, Liu Shasha, Chou Chieh-Yu, Sarah Rousey, Gao Shu-Pin, and Jasmin Ouschan have completed their initial task.

Live Internet streaming of the event is found at my147.com and the brackets may be found at wpa-pool.com. They are updated after each round, so it is easy to follow the progress of your favorite players.

Visit InsidePOOL for the latest news in the sport of billiards and pool.