Borderline Billiards hosts second day of Brunswick Invitational
BRISTOL, Tenn. (WJHL) – Borderline Billiards hosted the second day of its Brunswick Invitational Tournament on Thursday with some of the top players in the world competing.
The Women’s Professional Billiard’s Association (WPBA) Borderline Brunswick Invitational is a 5-day tournament hosting 80 professional players.
The tournament is serving as the soft opening for Borderline Billiards’ new location. They recently moved three doors down from their last address in Bristol, Tennessee.
“We do have the top players from all over the world playing,” Janet Atwell, Borderline Billiards owner said. “Wei Tzu Chien from Taiwan, number one ranked player in the world is here. Kelly Fisher from England is here. She’s number two. We have Pia Filler from Germany. Kristina Zlateva, Kristina Tkach. There’s lots of different countries that are being represented in this competition.”
Borderline Billiards set to move into new location
Wei Tzu Chien has been playing pool for almost 16 years, since she was 18. She said she really enjoys competing.
“For me, it’s like a big family, and I feel so much like they respect the players so much,” Tzu Chien said. “And that makes me feel really warm and it’s very professional for everything.”
Tzu Chien hopes to bring home the gold, but the number two-ranked player, Kelly Fisher, is also eyeing the championship title.
“I’ve played at the old location at Borderline in the old location several times,” Fisher said. “Actually, the last event there I managed to win it. So this is the new event here, and I’m hoping, fingers crossed, I can follow on from where I left off in the old place.”
The grand champion can win thousands of dollars in prize money.
“It’s probably going to be in the neighborhood of $8,000 somewhere in that neighborhood,” Atwell said. “But there’s 80 players in this event and so there’s several players paid all the way down to maybe the top 32.”
Both Fisher and Tzu Chien have known Borderline Billiards owner Atwell for years and encourage younger players to keep going.
“It takes a lot of focus and dedication and a lot of your time,” Fisher said. “So, really if you’re good and you really want to improve, get your head down, come and play in all the competitions. We’ve got a great family in the pool world. I call it my pool family. And everybody’s really friendly, everybody’s great. And they will welcome you with open arms and we’ll help in any way we can.”
“I feel that you’ve got to keep your passion, because sometimes I know it’s frustrating if it can’t get to another step, but you just have to keep going,” Tzu Chien said. “I just describe it as like a belly pain. Once you get rid of it, you’re done. You end up in another step, another level.”
Fisher and Tzu Chien will compete in the tournament on Friday in the competition’s final stage.
“It’s an honor to have that kind of skill level playing in this event,” Atwell said. “But it’s also an honor to be able to call those folks, my friends. You know, we’ve played on the same tour together for many, many years.”
Atwell said she believes the tournament has been great for the economy of downtown Bristol.
“There is a fee for the spectators and it starts anywhere from $20 per day to $100 for the weekend to get a VIP seat,” Atwell said.
Atwell said the VIP ringside seats have sold out, but there’s plenty of general admission tickets you can buy here.
She also welcomes anyone from the community to come and meet the pros.
“They come freely in and out the main entry,” Atwell said. “And a lot of times you can just see them sitting outside. They’re open to do autographs and have pictures taken at any given time.”
The championship is on Sunday, May 5.
The pool hall is at 628 State Street, Bristol, Tennessee.
You can also visit the Borderline Billiards website to see everything else the pool hall offers. It is also available for parties.
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