Qatar Open 9-Ball Still Filtering the Group Stages

We are now about halfway through the group stages of the Qatar Open 9-Ball Championship in Doha, Qatar. There are always a few surprises by this point in any tournament, but few as rare as Dennis Orcullo going two and out! Orcullo lost his first match to Mateusz Sniegocki of Poland and then left the tournament for good after falling to fellow Filipino Francisco Felicidia. Former World Champion Thorsten Hohmann, also in that group, is as yet undefeated and looks good to go through to the final rounds.

Group 2 looks promising for Vilmos Foldes and Daryl Peach as their experience in these large events should hold them steady. In group 3 Mika Immonen will soon face a good test. He won his first round match against Rafath Habib of Indonesia but now faces Antonio Gabica. Neither man has as yet found a loss so the match is not a death battle but both would prefer to take the shorter road to the final chart. This is a tough group. Also still undefeated within its confines are Radislaw Babica of Poland and Marlon Manalo of the Philippines.

Niels Feijen and Chris Melling look good to make it through in group 4, while Darren Appleton and Kuo Po Cheng would be the bookmaker favorites out of group 5. Group 6 is another toughie. Still on the winners side there are Yang Chin Shun, Imran Majid, Karl Boyes and Shane Van Boening.

Group 7 is another tough one. Marcus Chamat is yet undefeated, as are Ricky Yang, the winner of the Philippine Open, and Ko Pin Yi, the multi-time World Junior Champion who has not as yet learned how to miss a ball.  Group 8 also has some challenges within it as neither Ralf Souquet, Fu Che Wei or Dimitri Jungo have as yet moved left.

AZBilliards will provide coverage throughout the week of this event. As soon as they move out of the group stages and into a standard tournament chart we will also host the charts so you can watch your favorite players advance or fall.