Kim Ga-young (

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

: 김가영) (born 13 January 1983 in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

; sometimes referred to in the Western media as Ga-young Kim and

nickname A nickname, in some circumstances also known as a sobriquet, or informally a "moniker", is an informal substitute for the proper name of a person, place, or thing, used to express affection, playfulness, contempt, or a particular character trait ...

d "Little Devil Girl") is a South Korean female professional

pool Pool may refer to: Bodies of water * Swimming pool, usually an artificial structure containing a large body of water intended for swimming * Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings * Tide pool, a roc ...

player who plays on the

Women's Professional Billiard Association The Women's Professional Billiard Association (WPBA) is a professional women's pool tour based in the United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in No ...

Tour. Her father began teaching her to play

three-cushion billiards Three-cushion billiards, also called three-cushion carom, is a form of carom billiards. The object of the game is to the off both while contacting the at least three times before contacting the second object ball. A point is scored for each s ...

(a form of

carom billiards Carom billiards, also called French billiards and sometimes carambole billiards, is the overarching title of a family of cue sports generally played on cloth-covered, billiard tables. In its simplest form, the object of the game is to score ...

) when she was about twelve years old. After playing three-cushion for about three years, she started playing

nine-ball Nine-ball (sometimes written 9-ball) is a discipline of the cue sport pool. The game's origins are traceable to the 1920s in the United States. It is played on a rectangular billiard table with at each of the four corners and in the middle o ...

pool and turned pro at the 2003 BCA Open. Kim practices about 30 hours a week and enjoys a friendly rivalry with fellow Asian WPBA player Pan Xiaoting of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. Kim and Pan met in the finals of the 2007 Carolina Women's Billiard Classic, with Kim prevailing 7–6 in the WPBA's first all-Asian championship match.
Kim and Pan finished the 2007 WPBA season ranked 2nd and 3rd, respectively, behind perennially top-ranked Allison Fisher. Kim speaks

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...

in addition to her native

Korean language Korean is the first language, native language for about 81 million people, mostly of Koreans, Korean descent. It is the national language of both South Korea and North Korea. In the south, the language is known as () and in the north, it is kn ...

Titles

* 2004 WPBA U.S. Open Nine-ball Championship * 2004 WPA Women's World Nine-ball Championship * 2005 Tournament of Champions * 2006 Asian Ladies 9-Ball Billiards Tour * 2006 WPA Women's World Nine-ball Championship * 2007 WPBA Carolina Classic * 2009 WPBA U.S. Open Nine-ball Championship * 2009 WPBA Colorado Classic * 2009 East Asian Games Nine-Ball Singles * 2010 WPBA U.S. Open Nine-ball Championship * 2010 Tournament of Champions * 2010 Billiards Digest Player of the Year * 2011 WPA Amway Cup 9-Ball Open * 2011 WPBA Tour Championship * 2011 Tournament of Champions * 2012 WPA Women's World Ten-ball Championship * 2012 Tournament of Champions * 2013 Ultimate 10-Ball Championship * 2013 WPBA Masters 9-Ball Championship * 2013 Queens Cup * 2014 WPBA Masters 9-Ball Championship * 2014 Billiards Digest Player of the Year * 2015 China Open 9-Ball Championship * 2015 All Japan Championship Nine-ball * 2015 Tournament of Champions * 2015 Tornado Open 9-Ball * 2015 Billiards Digest Player of the Year * 2016 WPBA U.S. Open Nine-ball Championship * 2018 WPBA Grand Slam Nine-ball * 2019 World Team Trophy Women's 9-Ball

References

External links

Player Profile in Women's Professional Billiards Association

Official Fans Facebook Page
1983 births Living people Female pool players South Korean pool players World champions in pool Asian Games silver medalists in cue sports Asian Games silver medalists for South Korea Medalists at the 2006 Asian Games Medalists at the 2010 Asian Games Cue sports players at the 2010 Asian Games Cue sports players at the 2006 Asian Games World Games silver medalists for South Korea World Games medalists in cue sports South Korean expatriate sportspeople in Taiwan Medalists at the 2013 World Games Medalists at the 2017 World Games {{pool-bio-stub