Hohmann stays on course after win over Bashar

Qatar’s Ali al-Obaidli, Mhanaa al-Obaidli, Waleed Majed win on Day 2

With the game locked in at 6-6, Bashar Abdulmajeed’s break potted three balls, with blue next in line. The Qatar player tried to snooker his opponent, two-time world champion Thorsten Hohmann.
Hohmann managed to nick the blue, get the cushion, and unintentionally managed a safety, waving at Bashar in apology. His 35-year-old got up and shook his head and smiled. Bashar managed to hit the blue, but set it up for the 38-year-old from Germany.
Hohmann went 7-6 and then took two straight frames for a win in the World 9-Ball Championship at Al Arabi Sports Club Indoor Hall yesterday.
The 2013 world champion Hohmann, who had lost his first match in the main draw on Saturday, survived to move forward on the losers’ side of the draw.
“A couple of times when I snookered him, he got the cushion, and left the ball safe. I never got an opportunity. But if I had these situations, I can win the match. It happened quite a few times,” Bashar told Gulf Times after the loss yesterday.
“But 9-Ball is like that. You don’t know which way will the situation go, and today it went his way. We both played well, and he is a former world champion.”
Hohmann was all praise for Bashar. “He played really well in the beginning, a lot of break and runs. Then I made a few mistakes which kept him in the match. Then the match went my way, and then at the end, maybe he was a bit nervous, and maybe his stroke too all over the place. Instead of trying to make it, he was forcing it. Fortunately for me,” Hohmann said.
When Hohmann had won his second world championship in 2013, he had made it through the losers’ side of the bracket.
“All I remember is the end,” Hohmann said.
Hohmann, however, is carrying a bit of nostalgia in his bag for this event. “I am playing with the cue that I won the 2003 9-Ball World Championship with for a month or so. I am really enjoying playing with it, and honestly I haven’t had so much fun playing in a long time. Still, I have made so many silly mistakes, and so I am still taking it match by match,” he said.
“I played with the cue between 2003 and 2005, before I played for 12 years with a contracted brand that gave me a machine made cue. This cue is custom made and when I got it out after all those years at home, it felt great in my hand.”
Three Qatar players — Ali al-Obaidli, Mhanaa al-Obaidli and Waleed Majed — picked up wins yesterday, after losing their first matches, to stay alive in the competition.
Ali al-Obaidli and his brother, Mhanaa, both picked up 9-4 wins over Hong Kong’s Ip Tung Pong and Maldives’ Hashim Ahusanu respectively, while Waleed Majed beat Algeria’s Nadim Okbani 9-2.
“I was 7-1 up, then he managed to take three in a row, before I finished it 9-4. I played decent, not the best but good. Three in a row did put a bit of pressure, but I kept my cool and managed to close it out one frame at a time,” Ali al-Obaidli said.
“Three of us have made it to yet another day, and for all you know all three of us qualify. This game is different from billiards and snooker, it’s like a toss of a coin. It can go either way. So hopefully all of us qualify for the next round,” he said.
Another Qatar player, Muzammil Hussain, played Philippine world number nine Jeffrey Du Luna later in the day. Hussain lost 3-9 in the main draw and will get another shot at advancing through the tournament.
He will now play South Korea’s Woo Seung Ryu, who knocked former champion Mika Immonen out of the tournament with a 9-5 win yesterday.
Defending champion Albin Ouschan of Austria stayed unbeaten with a 9-5 win over Taipei’s Hsieh Chia Chen.