Mika Immonen (born 17
December 1972 in London
, United Kingdom
) is a Finnish professional pool player, especially of nine-ball, and nicknamed "the Ice
Man."
He won the
WPA World Nine-ball
Championship in Cardiff, Wales
in 2001. That same year, he was the
runner-up to
Corey Deuel in the
US Open Nine-ball
Championship, and was also a runner-up in the Gran Canaria Open
Nine-ball Championship in 2001, to upcoming player Ryan Shand of
Scotland.
He has represented Team Europe on eleven occasions in the
Mosconi Cup, most recently in 2008. During this
event Mika was crowned MVP, forever banishing bad memories of a
costly miss in the final game of the 2006 event.
In early 2009, Mika was awarded the title of Player of the
Year.
Mika is the current (2009) two-time Men's Division title-holder of
the
US Open Nine-ball
Championship, where the worlds top professional billiard
players compete in
Chesapeake, VA. This
year Mika won 14 straight matches, finishing with a close 13-10
victory over Ralf Souquet in the finals.
In last years event,
Mika claimed the 13-7 victory and pocketed the first-place prize of
US$40,000 on October 26, 2008 against
runner-up Filipino
Ronato Alcano, who settled for
$20,000.
Immonen nearly won his second world title at 2009
World Straight Pool
Championship, but was defeated in the finals by Stephan Cohen
of France. Also in 2009, Immonen bested
Darren Appleton to win the
International Challenge of
Champions, a tournament where he once reached the finals in
2002 but got dominated by
Efren
Reyes.
Titles
- 2000 Sudden Death Seven-ball Champion
- 2001 WPC 9-Ball Champion
- 2002 LG Flatron Challenge Champion
- 2003 On Cue; Philippines vs. Europe
- 2003 Philippine Open Champion
- 2004 Atlanta Open Champion
- 2004 UPA Pro Tour Champion
- 2007 Derby City Straight Pool Champion
- 2007 Korean Pro Tour Champion
- 2008 US Open 9-Ball Champion
- 2008 IPT Pro-Am Champion
- 2008 Mosconi Cup MVP
- 2008 All Japan Champion
- 2009 US Open 9-Ball Champion
- 2009 World 10-Ball Champion
Instructional Releases
In late 2008 Mika teamed up with Intrinsic Media to produce
MASTERING POOL, a 3-part pocket billiard instructional series. The
DVD series is packed with tips, techniques, systems, 3D animated
diagrams, and expert commentary by Immonen himself.
External links
References
Wikis
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