15/12/2002 Pro Tour Grand Finals

Stockholm, Sweden, 15 December 2002. Two years ago young CHUAN Chi-Yuan was nr. 38 in the World. He decided to do something about it, and he travelled to almost each and every Pro Tour event around the World. On Sunday he won the most prestigious event of them all, the Grand Finals, beating Kalinikos KREANGA (GRE) in the final.


CHUAN already lost 3 Pro Tour finals this year, one of them in Qatar to Jean-Michel SAIVE (BEL) whom he beat in the quarter finals, the 2nd one at the Dutch Open to WANG Hao (CHN) whom he beat in the semi-finals – and the 3rd in Japan where he lost to Greek Kalinikos KREANGA – whom he beat eventually in the Grand Final.

You can say for sure that CHUAN learned from his defeats!!

CHUAN started out best taking the lead 2-0. KREANGA had difficulties matching CHUAN’s speed and CHUAN also had a few good opportunities to win the 3rd. KREANGA took it however and eventually evened at 2-2.

The two finalists also went to 3-3 and the 7th was close as well. CHUAN however proved to have gained experience from the previous finals. He did not lose his focus and he got himself 4 match points at 10-6. He took the 2nd to win the final and the first prize of 38.000 US Dollars.

“When KREANGA came back from 0-2 I started to think about the previous finals that I lost. Luckily in the 5th game I found my road again, and after that I was not that nervous”, says CHUAN who already years ago made his goal clear. He wanted to be in the top 4 in the World.

“The difference was very small. CHUAN started out best, and the energy I spent coming back to 2-2 cost me later in the match”, says Kalinikos KREANGA who in spite of the defeat can look back on an excellent year, winning his first Pro Tour title in Japan and reaching the “big final”.