Great Britain will face Germany in the World Cup of Pool final after a faultless display by Darren Appleton and Karl Boyes against Slovakia was followed by a fighting comeback from 7-2 by Germany, who beat Estonia 9-7.
Late entrants Appleton and Boyes kept their remarkable dream alive as they kept Slovakian pair Jakub Koniar and Jaroslav Polach in their seats for almost the entire match, completing only the second semi-final whitewash in World Cup history with a 9-0 win.
Appleton made a tough long 9 the take the first rack and send a warning shot to the rest of the field; the 2014 winners were well and truly back. If that wasn’t warning enough, they shut Slovakia out of the match, taking three more ranks for a 4-0 lead. A safety battle in the fifth gave Slovakia a chance but Boyes slammed in a difficult 2 to end the exchange, and Great Britain cleared for a 5-0 lead.
It was an incredible performance, even more so given their late notice to enter the event. GB were near faultless; Appleton had a 6 ball that rattled before dropping in the sixth, but otherwise it was the centre of the pocket every time for the Brits.
They had to play safe after the break at 7-0 up and remarkably that brought Polach his first shot since winning the lag. He had to try a kicked safety but the 1 landed in the jaws of the bottom corner pocket and Boyes was able to do enough to make the 1 and keep the cue ball on the table.
That was Slovakia’s last visit. The result was the first World Cup semi-final whitewash since Finland’s win over Canada in 2007, and Polach could only admiringly describe Britain’s performance as ‘a destruction’.
“Pool is all about chances,” said Boyes. “I left Appleton a long 9 in the first, he knocked it in and it snowballed. We didn’t make any mistakes. They did that to Austria and have been on the receiving end now and the same could happen to us in the final, you never know.
“The big match was round two against Greece, they played okay but let us off the hook and then to do what we did to Holland, then we knew we could win the event. We have lots of experience in these events, so why not?”
Appleton added: “I felt a little bit better today than yesterfay, I am gaining more confidence and Karl is playing really well. Slovakia were probably numb because they weren’t in the game. We broke very well, ran a bunch of racks, and to get off to a great start was massive. It’s unbelievable that we are in the final.”
Great Britain will face Germany after a stunning comeback from Filler and Reintjes over Estonia’s Denis Grabe and Mark Magi.
Germany looked nervy at the table early on and Estonia were able to build a deserved 5-2 lead. Magi and Grabe played some fine stuff in the eighth, giving them both a four-rack lead but also confidence to move forward in the match.
Filler scratched on the 3 in the next rack and Estonia had 7 on the board and a five-rack advantage. However, from there the Germans’ comeback began. They took each of the next five racks to draw the match level at 7-7.
Germany didn’t have a shot in the 15th and Grabe played a great 2 to give his side a chance. They had to go safe on the four and Filler’s safety play was on point and Magi didn’t have luck on his side as the cue scratched to the bottom corner.
That took Germany to the hill, although Filler’s hand was stinging from the aggression of Reintjes’ high-five as the moved ahead.
However, there was still drama to be had. Reintjes under-hit position to the 7 and Filler opted to go safe. Grabe tied it onto the 8 and Reintjes left a tester up rail for Magi, and he missed it. Filler cut it in, and Germany joined Great Britain in the final.
The World Cup of Pool is broadcast live globally including on Sky Sports, DAZN and Matchroom.Live. Full broadcast details can be found at matchroompool.com. For all the latest news and announcements follow Matchroom Pool on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.
QUARTER-FINALS
Slovakia 9-8 Japan Great Britain 9-1 Netherlands
Great Britain’s Karl Boyes and Darren Appleton rolled back the years with an emphatic 9-1 World Cup quarter-final victory over Netherlands to advance to the semi-finals, where Slovakia lie in wait after a hill-hill win over Japan.
Boyes and Appleton, winners in 2014 when they beat Netherlands in a dramatic final, were late call-ups to the event after Canada suffered from travel issues. After beating South Africa and Greece, the pair originally called Great Britain ‘C’ were the only host nation team remaining.
An enthralling opening-rack safety battle finally ended when an Appleton jump untied the 3 and 8 from the side rail, and Bijsterbosch’s subsequent jump removed both the 1 and the 3. That wasn’t the end, though, and when Feijen missed a bank on the 4, it was Great Britain who were able to clear to take the lead.
A break and run doubled the hosts’ advantage and they moved 3-0 up in the third. Netherlands had a chance in the fourth but when Feijen missed a 4, Great Britain pulled further away. A break and run took them to 5-0, and rack six also went the way of the 2014 champions.
The Dutch returned to the table in rack 7 after Appleton played poor position to the 4, leaving Boyes no option but to go safe. It was Britain’s first error of the match and they were made to pay when Appleton’s next shot, a cut on the 4, failed to find the pocket and Netherlands cleared to finally get on the board.
But that proved to be the only miss of the match from Great Britain, who took the next three racks for an unlikely place in the semi-finals.
“It is unbelievable,” said Boyes. “The deeper these events go, even though it’s been a long time, we have plenty of experience together and you can smell blood.
“We know how well the Dutch have played this week but it’s a quarter-final and they knew how much experience we had. Our game plan and the way we communicated, it was spot on.”
“Except for one rack, I’m absolutely over the moon with the way I played,” added Appleton. “I came into the match with no confidence but because Karl played so well yesterday, I knew I had to pull my weight.
“I am so happy to be here and even though he hasn’t played for four years, I couldn’t pick a better partner. We have perfect chemistry, we gel perfectly together, understand each other’s mind and each other’s game and that’s what it is about in doubles.”
Great Britain will meet Slovakia (Jakub Koniar and Jaroslav Polach) on Friday afternoon after they turned around a 7-3 deficit to defeat Japan (Naoyuki Oi and Masato Yoshioka) 9-8.
The pressure of a World Cup quarter-final was evident from the first rack as Polach and Oi both missed 9s before the confident Koniar concluded the rack. In the second, Oi again showed he hadn’t settled when he missed a 2 after Yoshioka had fluked the one playing a safety, but the rack ended in similar fashion to the first; Polach missed a tough 9, Yoshioka this time guilty for Japan, and again Koniar was able to role it in for a 2-0 lead.
Japan settled and pulled back to 2-2 and despite scratching on the fifth break, were able to take that rack to lead. Slovakia looked sure to level in the sixth but Polach missed another 9 and this time Oi had no problems in making it 4-2.
Oi and Yoshioka were beginning to look much more settled at the table, and extended their lead to 7-3. But then came the Slovakian fightback. They won five consecutive frames to find themselves first to the hill at 8-7.
A failed 1-ball bank brought Japan back to the table and they were able to run the rack to fittingly tie the match at hill-hill for a place in the semi-finals.
It was fist pumps all round before the decisive rack. Oi had the break and the 4 went down, but Yoshioka undercut the 1. Not only that, but he scratched. Koniar took ball in hand. The key ball was the 6, just off the side rail above the middle pocket. Koniar called extension and rolled it to the bottom pocket. Polach took the 7 to the middle and his partner then sent the 8 down table, leaving Polach a 9 from the spot. He made it, and an explosion of relief followed from the Slovakian pair.
The remaining two quarter-finals take place on Thursday evening as Denmark face Germany before Philippines take on Estonia. The World Cup of Pool is broadcast live globally including on Sky Sports, DAZN and Matchroom.Live. Full broadcast details can be found at matchroompool.com.
ROUND 2 Finland 1-7 Netherlands Slovakia 7-6 Czech Republic
Netherlands fired a warning shot to the rest of the field as they stormed into the quarter-finals of the World Cup of Pool with a near-perfect 7-1 victory over an out-of-sorts Finland.
Slovakia are also through to the last eight having beaten Czech Republic in the tournament’s first hill-hill match, while Great Britain B’s Allison and Kelly Fisher crashed out 7-3 in round one to the Filipino pairing of Jeff De Luna and Roberto Gomez.
Niels Feijen has twice been a World Cup runner up, in 2013 and 2014, both playing alongside Nick van den Berg. Marc Bijsterbosch stepped up in 2017 after Van den Berg retired, and their 7-1 drilling of Petri Makkonen and Casper Matikainen was probably the best performance the new Dutch duo have put in together.
Finland, and particularly their rookie Matikainen, struggled at the table but in contrast the Netherlands were near faultless in booking their place in the quarter-finals.
“We played well, with confidence and we did a good job,” said Bijsterbosch. “We can’t complain today, but we aren’t there, we have to prepare for the next match and we have to keep going.
“We know Finland are a really good team but we looked at our own game and we really, really hit it off today, it was a great match,” said Feijen. “We are really enjoy this, we played a great match and we get some time to enjoy that.
“I felt really good, Marc, if you leave him tough he is still central so that gives me a lot of confidence too. If we keep playing like this, we are dangerous.”
Czech Republic lead their match against Slovakia 4-2 but with the chance to go 5-3 ahead failed to capitalise when Polach missed the 9; Gavenciak also failing to conclude the rack with a long pot. Koniar took the easy 9 left for him, and Slovakia led for the first time in the match when they went 5-4 up.
The tenth went the way of the Czechs, but Slovakia regained their lead after a dry break to reach the hill at 6-5 up. The next rack was a reversal of its predecessor; this time Slovakia breaking dry and Czech Republic taking advantage to join their opponents on the hill.
Gavenciak was breaking but again came up dry. Polach played safe and though Urban’s reply seemed to have done enough, Koniar played off the side rail to make the 1. It didn’t present his side with the opportunity to clear, though, and at his next visit he scratched on the 2.
The table didn’t look easy and even when Urban missed a straight 4, Czech Republic fell safe. Koniar then benefited from a bit of fortune in making the 4 trying to escape a snooker and this time the roadmap was there, and Slovakia cleared the table for a place in the quarter-finals where either Russia or Japan will await.
The session had opened with a highly-anticipated round one match between Great Britain B and Philippines. The all-female British pairing looked to have settled quickly and took the second rack to keep the scores level early on. However, De Luna and Gomez were breaking well and managed to open up a 5-1 lead before Great Britain B next won a rack. Despite falling further behind, Fisher and Fisher cut the gap to 6-3 but that was to be their last rack as Philippines took the next to close out a 7-3 win.
“We had a great time out there,” said Allison. “it has been a while for me and I really enjoyed it. There were some good shots in there but we never got going. We had a nice start to the match and we were never really frozen out but some of the games were a bit awkward. At this stage for me the most important thing is to have fun out there and I really enjoyed it.”
“We are competitors so we are disappointed, of course,” said Kelly. “In the match we never really got the chance to get going, everything fell a bit awkward. Me and Allison are great friends off the table, we gel well together, and we have loved every moment and had fun.”
Round one concludes on Tuesday evening with USA taking on Australia, Great Britain C in action against South Africa and Great Britain A up against Belarus.
The World Cup of Pool is broadcast live globally including on Sky Sports, DAZN and Matchroom.Live. Full broadcast details can be found at matchroompool.com.
ROUND 1 RESULTS Japan 7-1 Croatia Czech Republic 7-4 Hungary
Austria 1-7 Slovakia
World Cup of Pool debutants Slovakia stunned defending champions Austria, knocking out the No.1 seeds with a brilliant 7-1 victory on the opening afternoon at Stadium MK, Milton Keynes.
Albin Ouschan and Mario He have reached the last three World Cup finals, lifting the trophy in 2017 and 2019. However, Jakub Koniar and Jaroslav Polach barely gave their opponents a chance as Slovakia proved exactly why they had been invited for the first time. A little luck along the way helped but Koniar and Polach looked calm at the table as they ran four of the seven racks won to advance to the second round.
“It is amazing,” said Koniar. “We had a little bit of luck in the beginning but with the 1-ball on the spot and winner breaks, you can even beat the best team in the world.
“We knew we could win. I have beaten Albin a few times, Jaro has won against both players in the Austrian Bundesliga, so we knew if we played our best game we could win.
“We practiced the break all last weekend together,” added Polach. “We played a hard break, the cue ball control was good, and we had a little bit of luck, but from 2-1 to 6-1 they weren’t at the table. In this game you can beat anybody in the world.”
Slovakia will face Czech Republic in the second round after a 7-4 success over Hungary for the Czechs.
“It will be a federal derby,” said Jaroslav. “We play every year something like the Mosconi Cup between Czech Republic and Slovakia. It hasn’t played last year because of Covid so now we will play one scotch doubles to see who is best!”
The event opened with Japanese favourite Naoyuki Oi, alongside debutant Masato Yoshioka, up against Croatian duo Philipp Stojanovic and Roberto Bartol.
Yoshioka earned his first appearance in the World Cup on the back of a fine run of form prior to the Covid-19 lockdown. A win in the Kansai Open in his homeland and a bronze medal at the World 10-Ball Championship helped him rise to Japanese No.1 and World No. 36.
In their opening match, he actually looked the more comfortable of the pair, his experienced partner struggling at times with cue-ball control. Croatia, though, were really struggling. Japan only ran out one rack, so even with the winner breaks format the Europeans had chances, but they were only able to take one of them and Japan eventually won 7-1, a result which meant TV viewers were treated to another colourful Oi interview.
“It was a very fast match today, the table was playing very quick with the new ball and the new cloth. It was difficult but my teammate was confident,” he said, before treating those watching to a victory dance. “In the next round it will be Russia, they have the World Champion, or Switzerland who are very good, they have strong players. But Japan will play to win.”
After Japan’s cruising first-round victory, the clash between Czech Republic (Petr Urban and Michal Gavenciak) and Hungary (Oliver Szolnoki and Vilmos Foldes) was a more attritional affair. The Czech team’s preparations were hit when Roman Hybler had to withdraw less than a week before the event, but Urban proved a worth deputy.
The first six racks were shared before the Czech team pulled ahead and moved to the hill at 6-3 up. Hungary fought back briefly but their campaign was ended when Urban and Gavenciak won the 11th for a 7-4 victory.
The World Cup of Pool continues from 5:30pm (UK time) this evening with three more first round matches; Russia will face Switzerland, Greece take on Serbia and Estonia are up against Belgium.
The World Cup of Pool is broadcast live globally including on Sky Sports, DAZN and Matchroom.Live. Full broadcast details can be found at matchroompool.com.
