Kimsalabim! Magic stuff from Chau Zi Kim

Some called Chau Zi Kim's appearance in the final of September's Austrian Snooker League Grand Prix, which he lost 4-0 to Hans Nirnberger, a "surprise". But this weekend, Kim himself proved that his excellent achievement in Innsbruck was no coincidence. At the Inter Snooker Club in Vienna-Stadlau, the 15Reds player from Vienna, nicknamed The Chinese Wall, even stepped up a gear to lay his hands on the second ASL Grand Prix trophy of the 2007/08 season. Beyond any doubt, Kim deserved that victory as he won every match with at least a two-frame advantage. Besides that, his 69 against Felix Pleschek in the round-robin stage was the highest break of the tournament. Kim's class will finally be shown in the ASL rankings as well; he started the year ranked 42nd, climbed to 13th last month, and is definitely sure to be back in the top-10 now.

... Chau Zi Kim won the second ASL Grand Prix of the 2007/08 season ...

The final was a rerun of last month's - only the outcome was different. Kim used breaks of 35 and 39 to go 2-0 up, before Nirnberger, whose title earned him the current No. 1 spot, clinched the third to reduce his deficit to one frame. But Kim stayed in control and won back-to-back frames again to finish off the match, 4-1. Before reaching the final, Kim had to deal with a string of top players. In the group stages, he beat reigning national champion Pleschek 3-1, and outplayed Gustav Lodjn jr. 3-0. Kim added another 3-1 win over Christian Pleschko in the last 16, and rallied from a frame down to beat 2006 national champion Bernhard Müllner by the same scoreline in the quarter-finals. He went on to defeat Sebastian Hainzl, runner-up at the 2007 national championships, by 4-2 in the semis, before taking on SEBC's Nirnberger in the final.

Nirnberger as well had overcome some difficult opponents earlier in the tournament. In the last 16, he narrowly edged Pleschek 3-2 after leading 2-0. And in the semis, Jack had to go all the way again after Alexander Pichler had come back from 3-1 down to level the score. In the decider, however, Nirnberger had a great 59 break to secure his place in the final again. Pichler, who ended third after downing Hainzl 3-2 in the small final, had an excellent run of results as he beat all top-3 players from the ASL senior rankings: Ebrahim Baghi, Clausdieter Franschitz and Markus Führlinger. The No. 4 on these over-40 rankings, Dieter Simoncsics, also did well by dropping just one single frame in reaching the quarter-finals, where he lost to Hainzl.

Talking about good-old players: November's ASL Grand Prix in Salzburg will see the return to the highest level in Austrian snooker of former national champions Robert Burda [1992, 94, 96] and Robert Bütof [1997, 2001], who both re-entered competitive snooker this season and worked their way through ASL Qualifier and ASL Challenger events to qualify for the third ASL Grand Prix of the season. Which means, that the tournament in Salzburg could feature a stunning line-up with no less than six players who have each won one or more national titles.

2. ASL GRAND PRIX 2007/08
[Stadlau, 20/10 - 21/10]

Results:

quarter-finals:
Chau Zi Kim - Bernhard Müllner 3-1
Sebastian Hainzl - Dieter Simoncsics 3-1
Hans Nirnberger - Dominik Ulrich 3-0
Alexander Pichler - Ebrahim Baghi 3-2

semi-finals:
Kim - Hainzl 4-2
Nirnberger - Pichler 4-3

final:
Kim - Nirnberger 4-1

Break list:

- 69 Chau Zi Kim
- 61, 59 Hans Nirnberger
- 54 Alexander Pichler, Sebastian Hainzl
- 47 Clausdieter Franschitz
- 45 Kim
- 44, 41 Nirnberger
- 40 Pichler

Click here for full tournament results.

© text: Eric Willemsen [Vienna] / picture: Köö