Liu Haitao

Liu Haitao
nation	People's Republic of China
birthday	August 12, 1982
Medal table
8-ball World Cup 0 × 0 × 1 ×
Pool world rankings
Highest WRL place	2
Current WRL location	20 (as of July 2, 2020)

Liu Haitao (born August 12, 1982 ) is a Chinese pool player . His greatest successes so far have been reaching the semi-finals at the 8-Ball World Cup in 2012 and fourth place at the World Games 2013 .

Career

singles

At the 8-Ball World Cup in 2008 , Liu Haitao reached the finals of a world championship for the first time. In the round of 32 he was defeated by the American Shane van Boening 3:10. In October of the same year he achieved his first major success. After victories against Tyler Edey and the German Ralf Souquet , among others , he reached the quarter-finals of the 10-ball world championship . However, he lost this against the Filipino Demosthenes Pupul with 8:11. At the China Open in 2009 he came in 33rd place, but at the 10-Ball World Cup he was eliminated without a win in the preliminary round.

In 2010 he was eliminated from the 9-ball World Cup in the round of 64 against the Japanese Hayato Hijikata , and was third at the China Open. At the Philippines Open in April 2011, Liu Haitao also came third. A month later, he finished 33rd at the 10-Ball World Cup . At the World Cup in 9-Ball he was eliminated again in the round of 64 against the Czech Roman Hybler . Shortly before the 9-Ball World Cup, Liu finished fifth at the China Open. In September 2011, he finished third at the Predator International Championship . He also won the Haining Cup in October and finished fifth at the All Japan Open in November.

In February 2012, Liu Haitao achieved his greatest success to date. After victories, including against Vilmos Földes , Karol Skowerski and Ko Pin-yi , he reached the semi-finals of the 8-ball world championship . However, he lost this against the Taiwanese Fu Che-wei 3: 9. At the 9-ball World Cup, however, he was eliminated in the round of 32 against the Greek Nikos Ekonomopoulos . At the China Open 2012 Liu came in 33rd place, at the US Open in 9-ball on 25th place. In 2013, Liu finished 33rd at the China Open and 25th at the US Open in 10-ball. At the 2013 World Games , Liu finished fourth. After he lost 6:11 in the semifinals against the Taiwanese Chang Jung-Lin , who subsequently won the silver medal, he was defeated by the Filipino Dennis Orcollo in the game for third place with 5:11. In September 2013, he was eliminated from the 9-Ball World Cup with just one win in the preliminary round.

In June 2014, Liu reached 17th place at the China Open and , as in the previous year, retired from the 9-Ball World Cup with just one win in the preliminary round. At the US Open 9-Ball 2014 , he finished 25th. In February 2015, Liu reached the semifinals of the Chinese 8-Ball World Championship and was defeated by the reigning snooker world champion Mark Selby by just 13:15. A few weeks later, he reached the quarter-finals of the 10-Ball World Cup for the second time . In August 2015, Liu made it to the semi-finals at the World Pool Masters after victories against Karl Boyes and the reigning 9-ball world champion Niels Feijen , where he lost to Shane van Boening, the eventual winner of the tournament. In September 2015 Liu reached the final round of the 9-Ball World Cup for the first time since 2012 , in which he lost 9:11 to Greek Alexander Kazakis in the sixteenth-finals after an 11:10 win over Imran Majid . At the US Open 2015 he was third.

team

Together with Li Hewen , Liu Haitao formed the Chinese doubles three times at the World Cup of Pool . They reached the quarter-finals in 2012 , but lost 8: 9 to the Americans Shane van Boening and Rodney Morris . In 2013 they were eliminated in the first round against Hungary ( Miko Balasz and Gabor Solymosi ). In 2015 they lost to the Romanians Babken Melkonyan and Ioan Ladanyi in the first round .

With the Chinese national team, Liu has so far participated in the World Team Championship three times . He reached the quarter-finals in 2010 , which was lost in the shoot-out against eventual world champions Great Britain. In 2012 , with the first Chinese team, the quarter-finals in the shoot-out against Great Britain followed. With the second Chinese team he became world champion in Beijing in 2014 , with a 4-2 final victory over the Philippines.

successes

Haining Cup:	2011
Team World Champion :	2014

Web links

• Liu Haitao on azbilliards.com
• Liu Haitao on the European Pocket Billiard Federation website
• Liu Haitao on the 2013 World Games website

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Liu is the family name here, Haitao is the first name.