See Is Believing

Fu stayed within striking distance in the final, but couldn't overcome his determined foe.

From the middle part of the bracket, Malta's entertaining Tony Drago emerged as one of the favorites. He had won both matches in the group stages and looked relaxed and comfortable in the knockout stages, handily, and quickly, defeating Spain's David Alcaide, Oliver Ortmann and Jason Klatt to move into the quarterfinals. But then the lightning-quick Drago ran into See, whose wave of confidence was just cresting. See had earlier deposed Taiwan's young gun Ko Pin Yi in impressive fashion in the round of 16. Ko played well, but See simply wore down the Taiwanese with clutch shot-making and quality safeties. It was only after defeating Ko that See began to entertain ideas of victory.

"From the last eight, anybody can win it from there," See said after the tournament. "It's another three rounds. Everybody's playing well from there, everybody's tough and everybody has an equal chance. I thought I could win it, but I thought my chances were slim. But I guess it's anybody's game."

After defeating Drago 8-4, See's impressive run continued practically unnoticed right through to the final day as his semifinal against Akagariyama was played at 9 a.m. on Sunday on the featured table in front of a handful of fans. Playing with an absolute calm, See quickly grabbed a 3-0 lead, then moved up 5-2. He played coolly and rode out his mistakes, never letting himself get flustered. And then, inexplicably, the bottom nearly fell out on his whole tournament.

Up 8-5 in a race to 9 and handily clearing the table for what looked like a sure spot on the finals, See bent over a short and simple cut on the 10 ball. Incredibly, though, he missed it. Akagariyama cleared to make the score 8-6.

Then in the next rack, See was cruising through the colors and again had victory in sight when he missed a simple cut on the 8 ball into the side pocket. For a moment, it appeared that See had finally hit the wall, that his lack of experience had finally caught up with him and he was collapsing under the magnitude of the moment. But then fortune intervened. Akagariyama first pocketed the 8 ball. But after cutting in the 9, the cue ball tracked straight for the side pocket and fell in. See couldn't believe his luck - ball in hand on the final 10 ball, which Akagariyama conceded.

Having just been handed the match, questions lingered about whether See would be able to close the deal in crunch time. The Dutchman brushed them off with a friendly smile.

"It's no big deal," See insisted after the semifinal. "I won't let it affect me. I'm just glad I won."

All hopes of the local fans were pinned on Biado in his semifinal against Fu. But for the Filipino, those lofty expectations proved to be too much. A clear trend has emerged among Filipino players over the last few years. They are world-beaters away from home but once they begin to close in on a big title at home, they more often than not crumble under the pressure to win from all around the country. In the course of a few hours, Biado went from unbeatable to simply awful. Against Fu he played horribly, showing almost no life and looking as if he wanted to be anywhere except challenging for a world title. Fu cruised to an 8-1 advantage. Biado seemed to lighten up only when he didn't have a chance and he cut the lead to 8-5. But it was too little, too late and he lost 9-5.

Considering how See had closed out his semifinal match earlier, Fu entered the race-to-11 final as the favorite. But See left the previous debacle behind him and came out looking his typical steady self. Up 4-1, See seemed to have figured out the break shot and deftly took advantage of Fu's few errors. See got the match to 7-3 and was playing great. Then Fu started the fight back and brought the match to 7-6. See never blinked and got one back. Then so did Fu.

See went up 9-7, then Fu cut the lead to 9-8. In rack 18, Fu tried to play safe on the 2, but failed to hit a rail. See sucked up the pressure and made a gutsy clear to move within one of the title. See broke dry in the next rack, but after Fu missed a bank on the 3, See, looking remarkably calm, picked off the remaining balls to win the world title. When the final ten dropped, he dropped to his knees in disbelief and joy, then rushed over to hug his coach.

"I knew that I could play as I played in this tournament," a beaming See said. "But it never really came out in tournaments. It finally did come out, so hopefully this is going to change my career with more tournament wins."

With the amazing way he seems to deflect stress, combined with his obvious talent, more victories could very easily be in the offing for the Dutchman, who will play second fiddle no longer. When asked how he was able to handle the immense pressure and seemingly stay so calm, See pointed to the thinking part of the game that he's been working so hard to perfect. It turns out, he discovered a unique secret along the way.

"It's crazy," he said. "I didn't think about [winning] at all while I was playing. I tried not to think. I was trying to stare at things, to look at things, to avoid thinking because once you're playing well and you start thinking how you're doing it, it kind of gets you out of playing well. So I decided, don't think. So it worked. I'm happy."

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