Mika Immonen

Mika Immonen (born 17 December 1972) is a Finnish professional pool player, nicknamed "the Ice Man."

Career

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

In 2002 he won the UPA International Ten-ball Championship.

He has represented Team Europe on thirteen occasions in the Mosconi Cup, most recently in 2013. During the 2008 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. Subsequently, he also claimed that title for season 2009 and was awarded early 2010.

Mika was born in London, England, and is also an extremely accomplished snooker player, having amassed more than 100 century breaks.[1]

Mika is a two-time Men's Division title-holder of the US Open Nine-ball Championship, where the world's top professional billiard players compete in Chesapeake, Virginia. In 2009 Mika won 14 straight matches, finishing with a close 13-10 victory over Ralf Souquet in the finals. On October 26, 2008, Mika claimed a 13-7 victory and pocketed the first-place prize of US$40,000 against runner-up Filipino Ronato Alcano, who settled for $20,000.[2][3][4]

Immonen nearly won his second world title at 2009 World Straight Pool Championship, but was defeated in the finals by Stephan Cohen of France.[5] 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 lost the sudden-death rack to Efren Reyes.

In Late November 2009 Mika finally won his second World Title in Manila at the WPA World Ten-ball Championships. He Dominated the Philippine hope Lee Van Corteza in the finals 11-6.

In September 2016, in Astoria (New York), he won for the first time the World 14.1 Tournament title, beating in the finals Earl Strickland 300-270.

Titles

Instructional Releases

In late 2008 Mika teamed up with Intrinsic Media to produce MASTERING POOL,[6] 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.[7]

Sponsors

References

  1. ↑ Mika Immonen biography
  2. ↑ insidepoolmag.com, Immonen is New U.S. Open 9-Ball Champion
  3. ↑ gmanews.tv/story, RP's Alcano loses to Finn Immonen in US Open 9-ball final
  4. ↑ billiardsdigest.com, Big Win for Finn: Immonen Clobbers Alcano to Break U.S. Open 'Curse'
  5. ↑ AzB Staff (August 30, 2009). "Cohen wins Predator 14.1 Championship". AzBilliards.com. Retrieved 2009-08-31.
  6. ↑ mastering-pool.com, Mastering Pool Instructional DVD Series
  7. ↑ azbilliards.com, Immonen's Secrets Revealed in Mastering Pool Instructional DVDs
  8. ↑ mikaimmonen.com, Sponsors


Preceded by
Chao Fong-pang		 WPA Men's World Nine-ball Champion
2001 		Succeeded by
Earl Strickland
Preceded by
Shane Van Boening		 US Open Nine-ball Champion
2008, 2009 		Succeeded by
Darren Appleton
Preceded by
Darren Appleton		 WPA World Ten-ball Champion
2009 		Succeeded by
Huidji See
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