Vivian Villarreal (born 30 January 1965) is a former professional

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pool player. She was the World Pool-Billiard Association world number one women's player for five years, and has twice been runner up in the WPA World Nine-ball Championship.

Career

Villarreal's grandmother, Amalia Huerta, was the owner of ''Mollie's Lounge'', a restaurant and bar with a pool table, in San Antonio. Villarreal sometimes helped with cleaning and became interested in pool. She started to play at the age of 8, and by the time she was 11, had accumulated 161 trophies. She gave up playing pool for about 10 years from the age of 14 to focus on her studies. Villarreal graduated from Lee High School, and went on to study computer science, book-keeping and accounting at

San Antonio College San Antonio College (SAC) is a public community college in San Antonio, Texas. It is part of the Alamo Colleges District and the oldest public two-year college in Texas. The college has an average semester enrollment of 22,028 credit students an ...

. Villarreal started playing again, and participated in the Women's Professional Billiard Association circuit in 1992, winning her first title at the Wahine Open in Hilo, Hawaii her first year. She won several more titles over the following years and in 1996 won the ESPN World Open 9-Ball Championship. In 1992, she was runner-up in WPA World Nine-ball championship, losing to

Franziska Stark Franziska Stark (born 4 July 1961) is a German pool player. A winner of 24 Individual German Championships (7 in 8-Ball, 5 in 9-Ball Nine-ball (sometimes written 9-ball) is a discipline of the cue sport pool. The game's origins are traceable ...

, and in 1996 was beaten in the final of the competition by

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. She is known as "The Texas Tornado" for her rapid and demonstrative style of play. The Women's Professional Billiard Association inducted Villarreal to its Hall of Fame in 2015.

Personal life and charitable work

She adopted a child in 1992, but the child was taken away by her biological mother in 1997 following a court-approved visitation. Villarreal spent some eight years searching for the child, who was finally discovered to be in Arkansas. Villarreal subsequently agreed that the child could choose where to stay, and the child continued to live with her biological mother whilst maintaining contact with Villarreal. Villareal is the founder of The Tornado Foundation, which has a broad mission to help "any child, animal or victim in need of assistance" and organises a pool event called The Tornado OpenThe Tornado Open
Retrieved 31 July 2019. to benefit the Foundation.

Titles won

*1991 Wahine Classic *1992 McDermont Masters 9-Ball Championship *1992 WPBA National Championship *1992 Kasson Classic *1993 WPA World Tour – Ibiza, Spain *1993 Bicycle Club Casino Classic Cup *1994 Huebler Cues Seattle Classic *1994 Cuetec Cues Charlotte Classic *1994 Viking Cues Milwaukee Classic *1994 Connelly Billiards Denver Classic *1994 Mosconi Cup *1995 Viking Cues Charlotte Classic *1996 ESPN World Open 9-Ball Championship *1996 Connelly Philadelphia Players Classic *1996 Pool & Billiard Magazine Detroit Classic *1996 Gordon's Boston $50,000 9-Ball *1998 Brunswick Billiards New York Classic *2000 Texas Open Ladies' Division *2001 Houston Open – Ladies Division *2002 Predator Women's Florida 9B Open *2003 Texas Open – Ladies' Division *2003 Fast Eddie's #4 Women's Division *2005 Ladies' Spirit Tour #1 *2010 Fast Eddie's #1 Open Division *2011 US Bar Table Championship 8-Ball *2011 US Bar Table Championship 9-Ball *2011 US Bar Table Championship 10-Ball *2011 US Bar Table Championships All-Around *2012 29th Annual Texas Open Ladies Division *2012 Space City Open Ladies Event *2013 29th Annual Texas Open Ladies Division *2013 Big Tyme Classic Women's 9-Ball *2013 US Bar Table Championships – Women's Bonus *2014 41st Texas Open – Ladies Division *2014 2014 Big Tyme Classic Women's 9-Ball *2014 1st Texas Tornado Ladies Division *2014 Houston Open Ladies Division *2015 WPBA Hall of Fame *2015 Chinook Winds Open 8-Ball – Ladies Division *2015 42nd Texas Open – Ladies Division *2015 3rd Big Tyme Classic Women's 9-Ball *2017 44th Texas Open – Ladies Division *2017 AWBT 2017 #3 *2017 AWBT 2017 #5 *2018 WPBA Signature Tour Stop *2018 3rd Annual Ashton Twins Classic

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Villarreal, Vivian female pool players American pool players 1965 births Living people