One year ago, Wiktor Zielinski became the first player from Poland to break through at a large-scale event, defeating Aloysius Yapp to win the Alfa Las Vegas Open.
Heading into the final day of this year’s Open, Zielinski’s hopes to repeat as champion remain firmly in tact, as the Pole defeated 2020 champion Jung-Lin Chang in straight sets Saturday night at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino. The Pole will now face Vietnam’s Duong Quoc Hoang, who came from behind to beat Shane Van Boening.
After Zielinski won the first set, 4-2, the two competitors split the first two games of the second frame until the Pole clawed ahead with a victorious safety exchange. He failed to pocket a ball on the break in the following game but forced Chang into fouling, allowing him to tack on another win and climb onto the hill. Chang, who reached the quarterfinals by defeating Albin Ouschan and Joshua Filler, cut the deficit to 3-2 when he forced Zielinski into a foul with a safety but lost the next game and the match when his opponent used the same strategy, finding an opening to run out after multiple safeties on the 2 ball.
On an adjacent table, Hoang was taking advantage of a handful of unforced errors by Van Boening to grind his way into the semifinals.
The American won the first two racks of the opening set then took advantage of a missed cut shot on the 2 ball by his opponent to build an early 3-0 advantage. Van Boening, who reached the quarterfinals with victories over Eklent Kaci and Konrad Juszczyszyn, closed out the set in the next game when he forced Hoang into a foul with a safety.
He drew first blood in the second set when his opponent missed the 1 ball but again failed to make a ball on the break, allowing Hoang to drill home a combination shot on the 10 ball. Hoang climbed ahead after Van Boening missed a soft 7 ball in the side pocket, then increased his lead when he pocketed another combination after forcing the American into committing another foul. Van Boening had a chance to pull to within a game of the lead but missed the 6 ball, allowing his opponent to sail to a 4-1 second set win.
In the deciding set, Van Boening took advantage of a Hoang miss in the opening game to take an early lead but both players continued to be plagued by breaking struggles, failing to land a ball on the opening shot. Hoang tied the score after trading safeties, gave away a chance at the lead when he scratched but recovered in the next game when Van Boening scratched on the break. With the score now knotted at two, Hoang closed out the set by taking advantage of a missed 3 ball by Van Boening in the fifth game then breaking and running.
Zielinski will have familiar company in the semifinals, with fellow countryman Daniel Maciol defeating Bader Alawadhi 4-3, 4-1 in the quarterfinals, meaning half of the event’s remaining four competitors are from Poland. Maciol will face Sanjin Pehlivanovic, who defeated Vitaliy Patsura in straight sets as well.
Semifinals are scheduled to begin at 12 p.m. local time and the finals are slated to start at 4 p.m.
For the past five years or so, competitors from Poland had been going deep in large professional pocket billiards tournaments and challenging the world’s best.
Polish competitors like Mieszko Fortunski, Wiktor Zielinski and Konrad Juszczyszyn would routinely reach the final 16 or quarterfinals of a major tournament or world championship – like in 2021, when eight Poles qualified for the 64-player, single-elimination phase of a world championship.
“Everyone is chasing after each other here and working on their game and it makes it very difficult for anyone to stand out,” said Wojciech Szewczyk. “We have a lot of passion for the game and we take it very seriously.”
Despite this passion, no one from the European nation had managed to earn a major victory –until last year, when Zielinski took home first place at Predator’s Pro Billiard Series Alfa Las Vegas Open and Szewczyk came from behind to win the Predator World 10-Ball Championship six days later. Both players along with women’s Alfa Las Vegas Open champion Kelly Fisher will be back to defend their titles beginning this week, with the Cue Sports International Expo kicking off this week. The 11-day event, which also includes the 3-Cushion World Cup, will begin Wednesday with the men’s Alfa Las Vegas Open and the women’s Open starting on Friday.
As Predator and CSI work to produce the toughest and fairest tests in professional pool, this year’s Pro Billiard Series events will see a format change. The single-elimination final stage of the Open tournaments will expand to three sets of a race-to-four from the two sets that it was previously. If the third set finishes in a 3-3 tie, a sudden-death shootout will occur. Competition in the double-elimination opening stage will remain a two-set race-to-four with ties decided by a shootout.
The format for the 128-player World 10-Ball Championship will remain unchanged, with players competing in race-to-eight double-elimination during the first half of the event before expanding to a race-to-10 during the single-elimination portion of the competition.
Zielinski survived a rollercoaster of a final day in last year’s Alfa Open, defeating Dimitri Jungo and Mika Immonen in shootouts to reach the finals where he took down Singapore’s Aloysius Yapp in straight sets. Six days later, Szewczyk trailed Edgie Geronimo 9-6 in the quarterfinals of the World 10-Ball Championships before taking advantage of a pair of open opportunities to come from behind and defeat his opponent. He then took down Albania’s Eklent Kaci and Christopher Tevez of Peru to earn Poland’s first world title. The weekend concluded with Fisher continuing a hot streak that would result in her earning a gold medal at the World Games later that summer and Player of the Year honors with Billiards Digest as AZBilliards, as the Hall of Famer posted an undefeated record and defeated Canada’s Britany Bryant in the finals of the women’s Alfa Las Vegas Open.
Professional events will be played on 18 nine-foot Predator Apex tables while over 6,000 competitors from the CSI Leagues will be competing on 276 of the seven-foot Apex table.
The prize fund for this year’s World 10-Ball Championship is also expanding to a total of $250,000 – up from $225,000 the previous year – with the winner’s share remaining $60,000. The two-week-long event kicks off third year of the Pro Billiard Series, which will include 21 total events this year that will pay out over $2 million in prize money.
Matches can be watched on Billiard.TV and on World Billiard TV, the official YouTube channel of CueSports International. A schedule of televised matches will be posted daily on the Pro Billiard Series and CSI Facebook and Instagram pages.
PLAY GOT UNDERWAY at the Dynamic Billard Estonian Open as the opening day unfolded for the 200 or so competitors at the Kalev Sports Hall in Tallinn. Almost four rounds of play were completed and absentees Joshua Filler and Wiktor Zielinski were joined by No.4 ranked player Eklent Kaci who failed to materialise for his first-round match, having failed to travel to Estonia.
That gave extra impetus to some of the big names competing, as 2022’s player of the year, Francisco Sanchez Ruiz won his opening game, beating Panagiotis Ksipoliteas (Greece) by 9-6. The Spaniard plays again tomorrow morning when he faces countryman Salvador Garcia Fernandez.
Estonian No.1 Dennis Grabe enjoyed a 9-7 win over Portugal’s Joao Grilo to safely negotiate day one, while countryman, reigning WPA World U17 champ Karl Gnadeberg, scored a fantastic win over No.10 ranked player Miesko Fortunski by 9-5. Both players had table time in the Longoni 9 Ball League on Friday evening but Gnadeberg certainly sent out a message with the win.
Another highly-decorated junior, 15 year-old Felix Vogel (Germany) made it two wins from two in Tallinn. Vogel was a gold medallist at the European Junior Championships last year and even at a tender age, is a dangerous opponent for anyone.
He beat Eero Romppanen 9-0 and then Azhdar Nasirov 9-3 to set up a Winners Round 2 match against top Hungarian Oliver Szolnoki, which will be a real test for the precocious young talent.
Mario He, the winner in Treviso last time out in November, suffered a body blow as he lost his opening match 9-6 to Adam Stankiewicz. The 21 year-old Pole is currently ranked No.76 on the Euro Tour and that was certainly one of his finer moments.
Juho Teittinen
He though, bounced back on the one loss side as he defeated 16 year-old Finnish junior Juho Teittinen 9-6 to keep his hopes alive and he can look forward to facing another Finn, Leevi Auresto at midday tomorrow.
There are plenty more matches in store on Sunday as the field plays down to the last 16. Action continues in the morning at 9.00am local time, with Losers Round 2 as well as Winners Round 2 matches.
As well as the prize money, there are Tour ranking points on offer. All Euro Tour tournaments are 9-ball and players compete in a double-elimination format, playing down to the last 32 competitors, and then single elimination until the finish. All matches are races to 9 racks with alternate break.
Zheng Xiao Huai to become the first Chinese player at a Matchroom event since 2019
The prize fund for the World Pool Masters 2023 will increase to $125,000 with the winner now see to take home $40,000 as China return on the international stage in Nineball for the first time since 2019 from May 10-13 at the Brentwood Centre, Essex in England.
Already, the top 14 on the Nineball World Rankings after the World Pool Championship have qualified underlining the importance of the ranking system first introduced by Matchroom at the start of 2021 with Joshua Filler set to be seeded as number one after beating Lo Ho Sum in last year’s final 9-6:
China’s Zheng Xiao Huai becomes the first wild card with one more to be revealed in the coming weeks.
Tickets for pool’s most historic invitational start from only £10 with fans able to soak in all four days of action for just £60. Tickets will go on priority sale to Matchroom Pool Club members on Monday, 20 February with general sale to follow Tuesday, 21 February. Sign up for priority sale here.
Joshua Filler survived being knocked to the loser’s side by Alex Pagulayan on day two of the World Pool Championship 2023 in Kielce, Poland as only 64 remain after two days of action live on Sky Sports, Viaplay, DAZN, Matchroom.Live and TV networks worldwide.
Filler faced Pagulayan early on for a spot in the Last 64 to avoid an extra match in Losers’ Qualification round this evening. The Killer fell to a 9-7 defeat, his second defeat to the Canadian in a matter of days after a loss at the Derby City Classic. It left Filler having to beat Daniele Corrieri to ensure his hunt for a second world title would continue and he did so in emphatic fashion in a 9-1 dismantling. Crucially, defeat to Pagulayan meant Filler lost his seeded position in the bracket ahead of the Last 64 redraw.
Last year’s semi-finalist Abdullah Alyousef suffered a 9-3 defeat to USA hotshot Shane Wolford to be sent home at the first major hurdle whilst Oliver Szolnoki suffered the same fate in a hill-hill finish against Ajdin Piknjac. 2021 runner-up Omar Al-Shaheen struggled for his groove against Denis Grabe as the Estonian came good to knock the 2021 runner-up out the competition. There was frustration for 1996 champion Ralf Souquet also, the Kaiser well beaten by Pole Daniel Maciol in Winners’ Qualification before defeat at the hands of Dimitri Jungo. Home favourite Mieszko Fortunski was also knocked out with the World Pool Masters semi-finalist knocked out by Lars Kuckherm.
The 32 players who qualified through Winners’ Qualification were seeded in the Last 64 redraw against an unseeded player who came through the Losers Qualification matches with Karl Boyes completing the draw with Rachel Casey on the Matchroom Pool YouTube page. Pagulayan and Filler will have to dance again after being drawn against each other whilst defending champion Van Boening will come up against Uski.
Action returns from midday local time tomorrow on Sky Sports in the UK and Ireland, Viaplay in Poland, Scandinavia, the Baltics, and the Netherlands, DAZN in the USA and Italy as well as on Matchroom.Live and broadcasters worldwide. Table 2 and Table 3 are on the Matchroom Pool and Multi Sport YouTube Channels respectively and Viaplay in above listed territories. See where to watch here.
MARIO HE CLAIMED the Dynamic Billard Italian Open, winning the championship match 9-5 as he defeated Eklent Kaci. It was He’s first Euro Tour title in over three years, having reached the semi-final stage in the last two Tour events. Despite having a very consistent year and going deep at any number of tournaments, this was He’s first victory of 2022.
The Italian Open took place at the Best Western Premium BHR Treviso Hotel and started out with nearly 230 players which played down to the final four for the Monday evening televised stages. He and Kaci were the last two men standing and both played their parts in an entertaining finale.
Commented He; “It feels very good, especially when you come very close all the time. It’s another award for playing good but I think I needed it. It feels really good before you go into the holiday break before next year and I’m very happy about this win.
“When you are that close all the time, you want to win at least one or a few tournaments but there are so many other great players who can play a perfect set on you. This time I played really good and I got the rolls in some matches – I could have been out earlier but when you get lucky, you have to take it and still play good and try to win it.”
Both players got to grips straight away and they shared the first four racks with their breaks to set the score at 2-2 in the early stages. He took the fifth game, running out from his break, before Kaci found himself blocked out after downing two balls in the next. His jump shot on the 3-ball wobbled in the jaws and stayed out, enabling He to take one against the break for a 4-2 lead.
The Austrian had his break working well for him as two balls went in the next and with the remainder out in the open, he cleared the table for a three-rack lead at 5-2. That became 6-2 following a dry break from Eklent but he got to the table in the next and ran out to reduce the deficit to 6-3. That became 6-4 following another solid break-off but Mario came with some excellent shots in the next game to keep himself at the table and run-out for a 7-4 lead.
There were multiple visits in the next rack but it was Kaci who took it after He found himself blocked by the knuckle of the centre pocket with just two balls on the table. His jump shot failed to connect with the 8-ball and it became 7-5. A solid break from Mario gave him a look at the run out which he took advantage of to reach the hill.
They both exchanged high-quality safeties in what was the final rack before Kaci finally failed to make contact, kicking at the 1-ball, to give Mario ball-in-hand and a golden chance to close the match out, which he did to secure the title.
He continued, “It was closer than what the final score was and it could have been way closer. I didn’t break that well but I got away with it, making a ball and still having a shot at it. Eklent broke good but didn’t have as many shots as me after the break so that was the key in this match. I’m looking forward to taking a break, getting some energy for next year and just relaxing at home with family and friends.”
Earlier in the semi-finals, Kaci had won 9-5 over Miesko Fortunski (Poland) who had gamely battled to the closing stages of the tournament despite using a succession of borrowed cues after his own set went missing in transit. Mario He had made his way to the final, derailing Wiktor Zielinski by a similar scoreline in their semi-final.
As well as the prize money, there are Tour ranking points on offer as well as world ranking points, so there is everything to play for. All Euro Tour tournaments are 9-ball and players compete in a double-elimination format, playing down to the last 32 competitors, and then single elimination until the finish. All matches are races to 9 racks with alternate break.
All the matches can be viewed live at www.kozoom.com as well as selected matches on Facebook Live on the EPBF page. Results, live scoring and draw are available at www.epbf.com
DAY TWO OF the Dynamic Billard Italian Open played out today (Saturday) at the Best Western Premium BHR Treviso Hotel. With 230 players and 20 tables, there are plenty of matches to get through and as a consequence the Italian Open is extended to four days, concluding on Monday evening with the live televised semi-finals and final.
There are 32 players remaining on the winner’s side of the bracket including Poland’s Szymon Kural who earlier this week triumphed in the WPA Predator World U19 Championship. The 18-year-old from Krakow went undefeated through that tournament, and after a brief pit stop in home town Krakow, hit the road bound for Treviso.
So far, he has three wins from three matches and defeated French No.1 Alex Montpelier 9-6 in the main arena to book his spot in the winners’ qualification round where he will face Alex Kazakis (Greece) at midday on Sunday.
Commented Kural; “It feels fine, nice, because again, I played very well. I beat a very good player and Alex also played very well. His break though, didn’t work so good and my break was a bit better so overall I’m happy and looking forward to playing Alex Kazakis tomorrow.
“I’m tired but I’ll fight till the end and we’ll see how that works. I will do my best as always and I will try to play my best pool. I’m feeling quite confident because four days ago I won the best title of my life – the World Junior Championship – so I’m confident and I’ll have a lot of fun,” he added.
Another Pole, Wiktor Zielinski, is still on course to usurp the No.1 spot from Francisco Sanchez Ruiz as he too finds himself in the winners’ qualification draw where he will face Tomasz Kaplan. Other big guns still undefeated include Mario He, Eklent Kaci, Niels Feijen, Ronni Regli, Dennis Grabe and veteran Ralf Souquet.
Jonas Souto
On the losers’ side of the draw, the final featured match was a cracker between another former WPA World Junior Champion in Spain’s Jonas Souto and experienced Romanian Babken Melkonyan. The Bucharest man played at a high level as he led throughout but struggled as the finishing line approached.
Souto’s break wasn’t working to any great effect and it was Melkonyan who reached the hill first at 8-6, having led 4-1 in the early stages. A snooker from Souto saw Melkonyan escape but scratch in the process. With ball-in-hand, the Spaniard made hard work of it but soon found himself level at 8-8. Breaking for the match, Souto found something and delivered his best of the match and from there he ran out for a tight victory.
He said afterwards, “I don’t know how I won that! It was strange in the beginning as I didn’t make a miss and I was 4-1 down as he didn’t miss a ball. He was playing perfect and I managed to comeback under pressure and he missed a little bit more but he played unbelievable. I tried my best all the time and I won 9-8 but it was a difficult, tough match. I think I was breaking well but just didn’t get the rolls but in the last rack I had the luck and made the run out.
“At this Euro Tour, if you lose in the first or second rounds, you need a lot of energy for all those matches because there’s five or six of them to get through but I’ll give it my best and if I do, I do. And if not then it’s onto the next one,” he added.
Play continues tomorrow (Sunday) with the remainder of Losers’ Round Three, followed by two more Losers’ Side rounds, then the last 32 qualification matches on both sides of the bracket. Play commences at 9.00am.
As well as the prize money, there are Tour ranking points on offer as well as world ranking points, so there is everything to play for. All Euro Tour tournaments are 9-ball and players compete in a double-elimination format, playing down to the last 32 competitors, and then single elimination until the finish. All matches are races to 9 racks with alternate break.
All the matches can be viewed live at www.kozoom.com as well as selected matches on Facebook Live on the EPBF page. In addition, the semi-finals and final, played out on Monday night, will be live or highlights on the following television stations across Europe;
SportKlub HD – Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia,
Bosnia Herzegovina, Greece
Eyecons – Netherlands)
SportKlub – Poland
ORF – Austria
B1B Box – Bulgaria
Results, live scoring and draw are available at www.epbf.com
Fedor Gorst defeated Roberto Gomez to win the FargoRate Ohio Open and become the first man to win three Predator Pro Billiard Series titles, while his Filipino opponent has now lost in three finals on this series.
Gorst won a hill-hill second set to clinch the title 4-2, 4-3 and avoid the shootout Gomez was fighting for until he scratched with the second set in sight. It means Gorst takes home $25,000 and adds the Ohio title to those won in Arizona in January this year and August of 2021. Aloysius Yapp won last month’s Seybert’s Michigan Open to join Gorst in having won two men’s Pro Billiard Series titles, but Gorst now stands alone with three; Kelly Fisher has won four times in Women’s Pro Billiard Series events.
For Gomez, it is another second place on the Predator Pro Billiard Series. He was runner-up here and in Michigan last year and came close to forcing the shootout in Saturday’s final at the Roberts Center in Wilmington, Ohio.
The Filipino won the first rack of the match before Gorst took a 2-1 lead in the opening set. Gomez pulled it back to 2-2 when Gorst failed to thinly cut the 7 but a dry break brought Gorst back from his chair. A 7/10 combo took the former World Champion to the hill of the first set and he ran the next rack to take a 1-0 lead at the halfway stage.
The first rack of the second set belonged to Gorst but when he couldn’t jump the 1 it looked like Gomez would have an opening. However, the Filipino missed a long 9 and Gorst capitalized to take a 2-0 lead.
With the match slipping from his grasp, Gomez needed something and his opponent’s dry break provided a chance to cut the deficit in half. This time Gomez made no mistake and he ran the fourth rack to level the set at 2-2. The Filipino then lead for the first time since the first rack of the match, reaching the hill 3-2 up and one away from a shootout.
He had an immediate chance to complete the set with a 1/10 carom presenting itself after the break, but Gomez couldn’t take it down. However, Gorst then left the 1 for Gomez, only for the Filipino to fail on the 3. That brought Gorst back and there were no further errors as he leveled the set with a 9/10 combo.
A dry break handed the table to Gomez but he didn’t control the speed of the cue and scratched on the 4. That gave Gorst a chance to clear for the match and after he used the 8 to guide the 5 to the top corner, the table was open. The two-time Pro Billiard Series champion cleared the table to lift his third trophy on this series.
“It has been a complete rollercoaster,” said Gorst. “Especially in the final, I didn’t play my best game but it is almost always like this in the finals. The tournament has been crazy, I have had a lot of shootouts and almost lost twice, against Alex Kazakis and Sullivan Clark.”
Gorst took less than one hour to complete a 4-0, 4-0 semi-final wipeout of Estonia’s Denis Grabe, a far cry from the shootout win he’d had against Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz in Friday’s quarter-final. For Gomez, the last hurdle before the final was Eklent Kaci.
The Albanian took the first set 4-2 but Gomez earned the shootout with a 4-1 second set. Both players scored their first three spot shots but both then missed on their fourth visit. Kaci then failed for a second time and Gomez converted for a place in the final.
The final Predator Pro Billiard Series events of 2022 take place in Puerto Rico, November 15 through 22 as part of the CueSports International Caribbean Expo. The Medalla Light Puerto Rico Open and Women’s Open will be followed by the Predator World 8-Ball Championship and the Predator World Junior 9-Ball Championships.
The Predator U.S. Pro Billiard Series by CSI feature six open professional events during the calendar year. Created by league operator CueSports International together with the Predator Group, these tournaments will run in tandem alongside of CSI league events being held throughout the country. The winner of each competition receives a guaranteed spot in the following year Predator World 10-Ball Championship, which will be held during the annual CueSports International Expo in Las Vegas at the Rio Hotel and Casino.
These events are played on Predator Apex professional tables covered with Predator Arcadia Reserve Performance Cloth, with Predator Arcos II balls, and under the Predator Arena billiard lights.
Gorst beat Sanchez-Ruiz 9-8 on shootout, with the Spaniard’s miss in the ninth innings the only failed spot shot from either player. Estonia’s Grabe defeated defending champion Mario He to reach the last four, while Kaci advanced with a win over Mika Immonen and Gomez knocked out Dutchman Jan van Lierop.
Both semi-finals and the final take place on Saturday at the Roberts Center in Wilmington, Ohio, which is also staging the CSI Ohio State Championships. The FargoRate Ohio Open champion will win $25,000 and a guaranteed invite to the 2023 Predator World 10-Ball Championship, taking place in February in Las Vegas.
Spain’s Sanchez-Ruiz is enjoying what is now the best year of his career by some distance and hadn’t lost a set until he came up against Gorst in the last eight in Ohio.
After losing the first set 4-1, Sanchez-Ruiz was quick to build a 3-0 lead in the second. However, Gorst fought back all the way to hill-hill and looked set to complete the turnaround, and the match, until he lost position on the 7 and ended with the object tied to the cue. Sanchez-Ruiz got the next opportunity at an open ball and cleared what was left to force the shootout.
However it was Gorst, winner of the Apex Wisconsin Open in January, who came out on top in the shootout. Neither player had so much as rattled a jaw until Sanchez-Ruiz missed after nine shots each.
Grabe lies in wait for Gorst in the first semi-final of Saturday’s play after sending home defending champ – and travel partner – He with a 4-3, 4-1 victory. “It is always tough to play against a friend,” said Grabe. “Mario is a great player, it was a crazy match, back and forth, back and forth, but I managed to win the first set and that cooled me down a little bit, and from there on I played my game and that is a good win for me.”
Having won shootouts against Wojciech Szewczyk and Wu Kun Lin earlier in the day, Kaci made easier work for himself in his quarter-final against Immonen. The Albanian won 4-2, 4-1 for his fourth victory of the day. “It feels pretty good to be in the semi-finals of the FargoRate Ohio Open,” he said. “It was a long day and I had a few shootouts, but here we are.”
Standing between Kaci and the final is ‘Superman’ Roberto Gomez. The Filipino started the day by beating young Finnish sensation Riku Rompannen in a shootout to qualify for the last 16. He then crushed Poland’s Konrad Juszczyszyn 4-0, 4-1 to set up a quarter-final against the Netherland’s Jan van Lierop.
Van Lierop reached the last eight via an incredible shootout against America’s last-man-standing, Justin Martin. Martin had won the first set 4-1, but van Lierop forced the spot shots with a 4-2 second set. What followed was a masterclass in shootout pool. Neither player missed a shot until the 13th innings, at which point both then failed in succession. However, at 14-14 Martin missed – again from the left side – and van Lierop didn’t give up his second chance to win the match.
Given the length of the shootout, Van Lierop had little time to prepare for his quarter final and was soon 2-0 down to Gomez. The Dutchman pulled it back to 2-1 before eventually losing the set 4-2, and despite winning the first rack of the second set, went down 4-1 as Gomez advanced to the final day.
The FargoRate Ohio Open continues from 10am ET on Saturday with both semi finals and the final streamed free on Billiard TV, the World Billiard TV YouTube channel and at Kozoom.com
Alex Kazakis, Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz, Mario He and Seybert’s Michigan Open champion Aloysius Yapp are through to the last 16 of the FargoRate Ohio Open, but big names including all three Ko brothers are already heading home.
Fedor Gorst will face Mika Immonen in winners’ qualification on Friday morning but Albin Ouschan, Robbie Capito and Wiktor Zielinski have been eliminated from the event, which carries a $75,000 prize fund and is played alongside the CSI Ohio State Championships at the Roberts Center in Wilmington, Ohio.
Ouschan suffered a shootout defeat to Finnish youngster Riku Romppanen and was then eliminated 4-3, 4-0 by Eklent Kaci. Romppanen takes on Roberto Gomez tomorrow morning for a place in the last 16, while Kaci must beat Predator World 10-Ball Champion Wojciech Szewczyk to remain in the event.
Four winners’ qualification matches have already played, with the remaining four to take place at 10am on Friday. Kazakis defeated David Alcaide 4-1, 4-3 for his place in the last 16, leaving the Spaniard with one more chance to qualify.
“I am feeling really happy that I won that match,” said Kazakis. “First set everything went my way, and in the second set it went both ways. David had a chance to run out at hill-hill but he missed it and I took my chance.”
Sanchez-Ruiz won 4-3, 4-3 over America’s Justin Martin while Aloysius Yapp, a two-time winner on the Predator Pro Billiard Series, defeated Finland’s Jani Uski 4-2, 4-3. Last year’s Fargorate Ohio Open champion Mario He needed a shootout to advance at the expense of Michael Schneider. The four players already qualified for single elimination share four Pro Billiard Series titles, with only Sanchez-Ruiz yet to win a stop.
Brothers Ko Ping Han, Ko Pin-Yi and Ko Ping-Chung were all eliminated within hours of each other. Ping Han had suffered shootout defeat to Petri Makkonen on Wednesday and was again beaten from the spot on Thursday, this time by Badar Al Qrrayyan. Defeat yesterday to Jan van Lierop had left Pin-Yi on the losers’ side, where a 4-1, 4-1 win for Sharik Sayed meant that Ping-Chung was now the only member of the Ko family still in the event.
However, Ping-Chung was soon eliminated too. His tournament had opened with a shootout defeat to Robbie Capito on Wednesday. He responded with a 4-3, 4-1 win against Sanjin Pehlivanovic only to lose by shootout to New Zealand’s Sullivan Clark.
Zielinski’s tournament came to an end against Chang Jung-Lin, who won 4-2, 4-3 in the day’s final match on the TV table. Chang missed a 4 ball at 3-2 up in the second set, allowing his Polish opponent to level the match at 3-3, however when Zielinski missed the 5, Chang was back at the table and won the rack to avoid a shootout. Chang requires two more wins to reach the single elimination stage and faces Dimitri Jungo in his next match.
Among the other players coming back on the losers’ side is Konrad Juszczyszyn, who will face Aleksa Pecelj after beating Ernesto Dominguez in a lengthy shootout. Juszczyszyn took the first set 4-2 but a 4-0 shutout in the second took the match to a shootout. Neither player missed in their first four shots, before both missed their next two sudden death efforts. Another successful spot shot each took the shootout to 7-7, but Dominguez missed his next shot after Juszczyszyn had already sunk his.
The FargoRate Ohio Open continues from 10am ET on Friday with six matches streamed free on Billiard TV, the World Billiard TVYouTube channel and at Kozoom.com
