WWS Interviews Stephanie Drakulic — OX BILLIARDS
By World Girls’s Snooker: https://www.womenssnooker.com/stephanie-drakulic-qa/
Forward of the second staging of the WineCellars.com US Women’s Open this August, we caught up with Portland’s Stephanie Drakulic who will likely be among the many gamers to compete within the occasion in Seattle.
Drakulic performs an lively position within the native cuesports neighborhood as President and webmaster of the Northwest Girls’s Pool Affiliation (NWPA) – which is the biggest ladies’s regional cuesports tour within the US.
Having competed in pool since 2012, Drakulic has twice been chosen for Workforce Oregon within the Northwest Cup and was named as the general occasion MVP in 2021, in addition to ending as champion in North America Pool Tour Division II in 2020. In 2016, she was named because the 2016 NWPA Participant of the 12 months.
It was ultimately 12 months’s US Girls’s Open that Drakulic would make her World Girls’s Snooker Tour debut, incomes her first match win on the circuit, and we caught up along with her forward of this 12 months’s match…
How a lot are you wanting ahead to competing in snooker as soon as once more at this 12 months’s WineCellars.com US Open?
I’m so excited! What a privilege it’s to be part of this.
How did you discover the expertise of enjoying within the occasion in 2022?
The inaugural US Open was my second ever snooker match, and it felt surreal. I used to be a bit nervous however largely simply comfortable to be there, with little expectation of my very own efficiency.
What did you study from enjoying a number of the extra skilled gamers from Europe together with Emma Parker and Mary Talbot-Deegan?
I discovered that snooker can seem a lot simpler than it really is!
It was additionally painfully clear I’ve a lot to study, notably in terms of protecting rating.
The match may also see us return to the great OX Billiards in Seattle – it’s a particular cuesports venue isn’t it?
I first met its proprietor Mike Dominguez simply earlier than the COVID lockdown, whereas he was making ready to open his earlier room, Baize. I by no means obtained to see Baize in individual however was completely thrilled when he advised me about Ox, notably that it will have each snooker tables and 9-foot pool tables (9-foot tables are declining within the northwest, getting changed by 7-foot tables). I’m a 9-foot participant at coronary heart so this information excited me deeply.
Ox Billiards has rapidly develop into a family title to gamers everywhere in the area. They’ve completed a lot to assist gamers and billiards on the whole, by internet hosting some main tournaments, sponsoring native gamers, and usually elevating the bar so far as tools high quality and utilising know-how. As an illustration, they’ve a hard and fast streaming setup on their tables, permitting us all to look at occasions from dwelling. Ox Billiards and their group are absolute gems!