Ko Ping Chung (Photo courtesy of Erwin Dionisio)
Day five play at the International 9-Ball Open saw three heavyweights sent to the one loss side.
In the most thrilling match of the night on Thursday, Shane Van Boening took on Chinese Taipei’s Ko Ping Chung on the Accu-Stats streaming table. Van Boening held the lead for the majority of the match and it looked like it was going to be another typical victory for Van Boeing over yet another dangerous opponent. Then the pool gods decide to mix things up a little bit. With Shane leading 10-6, he scratched on the break, and that was his last trip to the table. Ko proceeded to run that rack for a 10-7 scoreline, and then broke and ran the next four racks for the win.
In the match previous to Ko’s win over Van Boening, Ko’s countryman Chang Jung Lin sent fan favorite Jayson Shaw to the one loss side. Chang took an early lead in this one, but he never played like he had a comfortable lead. Knowing how dangerous Shaw can be when he gets into a rhythm, Chang did all he could to keep Shaw off balance, and it worked. The fans kept waiting for the usual Shaw string of racks, but it never came and Chang took the 11-4 win.
The third upset came on one of the side tables on Thursday night where Estonia’s Denis Grabe took on World #1 Eklent Kaci. Grabe controlled this match the whole way, and Kaci seemed almost disinterested in the match. While the final score was Grabe winning 11-7, the match never seemed that close.
Day six dawns with twelve players still in contention for the title, with Grabe set to face Ko in one winner’s side contest, and Franciso Sanchez Ruiz taking on Chang in the other winner’s side match. One loss side matches will be…
Dennis Orcollo vs Eklent Kaci
Chris Melling vs Shane Van Boening
Justin Bergman vs Jayson Shaw
Watch select matches with the online PPV coverage from Accu-Stats and follow all of the action at this year's event with our online coverage including real time scoring and live brackets.
