Ewa Laurance
| Name | Date of Birth | Country |
|---|---|---|
| Ewa Laurance | 26-02-1964 | Sweden |
Ewa Laurance (born Ewa Svensson, February 26, 1964, Gävle, Sweden, and formerly known as Ewa Mataya and transitionally as Ewa Mataya Laurance) is a Swedish–American professional pool (pocket billiards) player, most notably on the Women's Professional Billiard Association nine-ball tour, a sports writer, and more recently a sports commentator for ESPN. In 2004, she was inducted into the.
Laurance has been playing pool since she was 14 years old. She moved to the United States in 1981 after competing at theNew York City World Championships.
Laurance has won numerous major women's pool titles, including the WPA World Nine-ball Championship, US Open Nine-ball Championship, WPBA National Nine-ball Championship, International Trickshot Championship and the Swedish and European 14.1Championships.
In 2005, Laurance bested three of her peers, WPBA tour members Allison Fisher, Dawn Hopkins, and Gerda Hofstatter, at the Women's Trick Shot Challenge held at the New York Hotel Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, pocketing US$25,000 as the grand prize. Animated and expressive, she played to the audience and the cameras, "a true showperson in her element and a wonderful example to all trick shot artists."
Writing
She has authored three books, The Ewa Mataya Pool Guide, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pool & Billiards, and Quick Start Guide to Pocket Billiards. She has also written monthly columns for Pool & Billiard magazine.