Matsuyama edged out his protégé with a close 50 to 48 finish in 51 innings. By the 21st inning Matsuyama held a 29–21 lead. Katsura battled back, the score 43–42 in her favor by inning 33, but Matsuyama ran three in the 46th inning, and Katsura could not close the gap. Mentor and protégé alike posted high runs of six in the match On March 18 Katsura trounced Art Rubin 50–28 in 58 innings. but was handed a worse defeat in her next match on March 20, losing to Bozeman 50 to 18 in 52 innings. In her last match on March 21, Katsura pulled off a 50–46 win against Kilgore in 61 innings. This was the biggest upset of the tournament. Kilgore, the "Giant Killer", was the only player other than Matsuyama who was considered to have a fighting chance at dethroning Hoppe. Between this win and her earlier win over Procita, Katsura had beaten the only two players in the tournament that had won their matches against Hoppe. That evening a separate exhibition match between Katsura and Kilgore was featured on KRON-TV, with commentary provided by Cochran. The next day the tournament concluded with Hoppe repeating as champion as he had so many times before. Katsura took seventh place, ahead of Procita at eighth place, Chamaco at ninth and Rubin at tenth. Above her were Crane at sixth, Rubin at fifth, Kilgore at fourth, Bozeman at third and Matsuyama as runner-up. Following the competition, Jay Bozeman, said "We've found it hard to believe that a woman could actually step into the best billiard championship in the world and hold her own. Miss Katsura is one of the finest players I've faced in a world's tournament, while Welker Cochran, five-time holder of the Billiards World Crown, predicted: "Given another two or three years of American competition and she will be the world's champion... Masako has opened a new field for women. Her presence has made the game attractive to women for the first time. She has the power of a man and strokes beautifully. Her maneuvers with the cue ball are fantastic. All she needs is a bit more experience and she will be unbeatable." Soon after the 1952 championship, Cochran announced he was coming out of a seven-year retirement to play an exhibition tour with Katsura.