Thursday night at the Arcadia Arizona Open, Billiard Congress of America Hall of Famer Alex Pagulayan and World 10-Ball runner-up Naoyuki Oi battled back-and-forth in a match which felt like it could have been being held on the tournament’s final day instead of its second.
The crafty Filipino managed to take advantage of some early positional errors by his opponent to jump out to a commanding lead, then watched as Oi found his break in the second half of the match. The eccentric 39-year-old shut down Pagulayan down the stretch, then clinching the match in a shootout of a winner’s side match at Casino Del Sol in Tucson. Oi, who also finished third at last year’s United States Open Pool Championship, is one of 16 competitors who remain undefeated in the 64-player, double-elimination tournament.
After splitting the first two racks of the first set, Oi had a chance to regain the lead but overran position on the 6 ball then missed a jump shot. Pagulayan cleared the table and added another victory when his opponent scratched in the fourth game. Now leading 3-1, the Filipino had a chance to close out the set but failed to run out after a break shot which left balls clustered on half of the table. Oi attempted to execute a combination shot on the 10 ball to narrow the deficit but left the ball in the pocket’s jaws, handing Pagulayan an easy first set victory.
While the Filipino struggled with his break in the opening set, Oi found his in the second as he broke and ran the first rack of the frame. After Pagulayan tacked on two wins to grab a 2-1 advantage, Oi won a safety exchange on the 4 ball by sinking a game-winning combination shot to tie the score. The veteran from Japan again turned on his break shot, scattering the balls and running out in back-to-back games to secure a 4-2 victory and send the match to a shootout.
The two competitors each pocketed the first two shots of the extra frame but Pagulayan left his third shot in the pocket’s jaws. Oi would sink back-to-back balls after his opponent’s miss to secure the victory.
Oi will now face Kuwait’s Omar Al Shaheen Friday evening in a winner’s side match while Pagulayan moves to the one-loss side of the bracket to face Dimitris Loukatos Friday morning.
Also remaining undefeated is Austria’s Max Lechner, who battled through a handful of unforced errors to defeat Alex Kazakis, 4-3, 4-3.
It was Kazakis who struggled with errors early on, as Lechner built a 3-0 advantage thanks to his opponent missing shots in the first and third racks. The Greek fought back, taking advantage of a foul, missed shot and dry break to tie the match at 3-3. After Lechner scratched after missing a jump shot in the deciding game, Kazakis appeared to be on the verge closing out the set but misplayed position on the 6 ball, which the Austrian pocketed and cleared the table to earn the victory.
The two competitors continued to battle in the second set, with Kazakis generating a 2-1 advantage only to watch Lechner tack on back-to-back racks to regain the lead. Standing at the table with a chance to clinch the victory, Lechner missed a long shot on the 1 ball in the sixth rack. Kazakis cleared the table to tie the set, then failed to pocket a ball on the break in the deciding seventh game, which Lechner ran out to clinch the match.
A handful of notable competitors will be facing elimination on the one-loss side when competition begins Friday morning, including Estonia’s Denis Grabe and former World 9-Ball champion Thorsten Hohmann, who will meet up at 10 a.m. local time. Grabe lost in a shootout earlier in the tournament to Poland’s Mieszko Fortunski while Hohmann struggled to find his stroke against Corey Deuel, falling in straight sets.
There is also no shortage of heavyweight matchups on the winner’s side of the bracket, such as Fortunski facing American Tyler Styer. The three-time Mosconi Cup team member earned his way into the third round of the winner’s bracket with comfortable straight set victories against Steve Lillis and Blaine Barcus, winning 16 total racks against only two defeats.
Also competing on the winner’s side will be Poland’s Konrad Juszczyszyn, who will be squaring off against Joven Bustamante and Russia’s Fedor Gorst, who be matching up against Francisco Sanchez Ruiz of Spain. Both Gorst and Sanchez Ruiz have been in complete command in their early round matches, with each winning 16 total games over three days while losing only one rack each.
Live coverage of the Arcadia Arizona Open will be streamed for free on any device with Billiard TV or the World Billiard TVYouTube channel throughout the week. Follow @probilliardseries on social media for up-to-date information, or visit probilliardseries.com for the latest results and live brackets.
Play continued today in Treviso as 181 starters were reduced down to 16 players in the final Euro Tour event on the 2021 schedule. With a very strong field in attendance, there were some big names who left the event prematurely.
Joshua Filler was beaten in the losers’ qualification round, a victim of Spain’s Jose Luis Delgado. Likewise, veteran Niels Feijen fell by the wayside in the last 32 at the hands of Germany’s up-and-coming Tobias Bongers. Other stars on their way home include 2019 WPA World Champion Fedor Gorst, Dennis Grabe and two-time WPA World Champion Thorsten Hohmann.
Euro Tour No.1 ranked player, Francisco Sanchez Ruiz (Spain) is enjoying another terrific run here in Italy as he goes for his third consecutive ET championship, a feat not achieved since Oliver Ortmann took down four consecutive titles 27 years ago. The Spaniard has breezed through the winners’ side and now faces a very strong Max Lechner in the last 16.
There are three Poles in the top half of the draw; Mieszko Fortunski faces the ever-dangerous Swiss/Filipino Ronnie Regli while the fast-improving Daniel Maciol faces compatriot Wiktor Zielinski. It’s been well over two years since a Polish player won a Euro Tour championship – Konrad Juszczyszyn at this same venue – which could be some sort of omen.
Two stand-out matches in the bottom half of the drawer are David Alcaide, preparing for the Mosconi Cup in a couple of weeks, against Austria’s Mario He and two of the brightest young talents on the tour.
Hungary’s Oliver Szolnoki has had a real break-out year and he faces young Serbian Aleksa Pecelj who is coming off a terrific run of form, having finished runner-up to Sanchez Ruiz last time out in Turkey and then winning the gold in the Men’s Under 23 division at the recent European Championships.
Play resumes on Saturday 26th November at 12 midday local time with the final getting underway at 17.30.
Starting tomorrow is the third and final event of the Predator Ladies Euro Tour. An outstanding field of 50 players has assembled including the likes of Kristina Tkach, Margareta Fefilova, Bojana Sarac, who made it through to the 33-48 round in the men’s event this week, as well as No.1 ranked player Olivia Zalewska of Poland. The ladies’ event concludes on Sunday.
The International 9-Ball Open is now down to just sixteen players in the final single elimination bracket. The final sixteen undefeated players in the first stage of the event were redrawn into the single elimination stage, with each of those players being randomly drawn to face one of the final sixteen players with one loss from stage one. All of those players had one match on Wednesday night and that leaves the event with sixteen players.
That first round of single elimination matches spelled the end of the line for sixteen players, including reigning champion Jayson Shaw, Mosconi Cup Team Member Earl Strickland, Alex Pagulayan, Ralf Souquet, Young Gun Nathan Childress and World #1 ranked Aloysius Yapp. Yapp’s elimination was a quick and painless one, with Austria’s Max Lechner scoring a decisive 10-4 win in the final feature match of the night.
Second round matches lined up Thursday include Lechner vs Mika Immonen, Albin Ouschan vs Joshua Filler, Shane Van Boening vs Wiktor Zielinski and Fedor Gorst vs Dennis Orcollo.
In addition to the eight matches today in the Open 9-Ball event, the Junior Invitational Championship kicks off today, with sixteen of the top male and eight of the top female juniors in the country competing.
The International 9-Ball Open will continue play all of this week and can be watched as part of the online PPV for this event at https://www.onsitepool.com/accustats/. For the first time in the history of this event, fans can watch action on any table as part of the PPV coverage.
Defending champion, Ruslan Chinahov, still in hunt for second straight title.
As the 15 ladies in the American 14.1 Straight Pool Championships prepared for their second day of round robin competition, the final 16 competitors opened their battles for advancement to the event quarterfinals, scheduled for 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. today (Friday, Oct. 22).
An ‘old school’/’new school’ matchup between defending champion Ruslan Chinahov and Ralf Souquet drew a growing crowd as they moved into the 100s, bound for 150. Chinahov kept his title defense intact with the third-lowest differential of the eight matches, eliminating Souquet 150-107. Chinahov is scheduled to play again at 5 p.m. against Max Lechner, who defeated the Iceman Mika Immonen 150-104, in a match that was tight going into the 120s.
The tightest game of the second, single elimination round went to the battle between Wiktor Zielinski and John Morra, who were separated by 22 balls when the match went to Zielinski 150-128. Zielinski will play again, also at 5 p.m., versus Mieszko Fortunski, who defeated Aloysius Yapp 150-53 to advance.
One of the more highly anticipated matches will see Albin Ouschan and Joshua Filler square off in a 2 p.m. match that is minutes away. Ouschan eliminated Konrad Juszczyszyn 150-118, while Filler downed Alex Kazakis 150-75.
Shane Van Boening was eliminated 150-95 by Oliver Szolnoki, who’ll face Fedor Gorst in the other 2 p.m. quarterfinal matchup. Gorst downed Mario He 150-90.
Day 2 of the American 14.1 Straight Pool Championship featured rounds 3 & 4 of round- robin competition. Saturday’s at golf tournaments are commonly referred to as “moving day”. The matches on Wednesday had a similar feel to them. Players were either cementing their chances to move into the 24 man single elimination phase, or fighting for the opportunity to keep those chances alive heading into the 5th and final round on Thursday afternoon. There are 7 players currently sporting a 4-0 record: Shane Van Boening, Alex Kazakis, Wiktor Zielinski, Aloysius Yapp, Max Lechner, Albin Ouschan and Earl Strickland.
The highlight of today’s action was provided by Joshua Filler. Filler, who yesterday lost a tight match to Alex Kazakis 125-114, started his day by defeating Mathias Arnold 125-9 and moving his record to 2-1. Next up was Alex Pagulayan, who was also 2-1. Then in less than 65 minutes, Filler produced a 213 ball run and defeated Pagulayan 125 to -1. The run easily outdistanced a 182 ball run posted earlier in the day by Mario He and it also bested the tournament high run of 210 posted yesterday by Van Boening. The run ended on a delicate, almost perpendicular cut on a ball located on the head rail. The object ball came to rest inside the jaws and deep on the shelf of the pocket. Shortly thereafter, Joshua displayed his versatility by teaming up with his wife Pia to provide the commentary on the final streamed match of the evening. Quite a day for the Filler’s.
The following is a breakdown of the advancement scenarios for each Group heading into Thursday’s final round-robin matches. The top 3 players in each flight head to the single elimination phase with the 8 flight winners receiving a 1st round bye. Head to head results break any tie between two players.
Group 1: Shane Van Boening has won the Group. Dennis Grabe (3-1) advances. Ralph Eckert advances with a win vs SVB. Otherwise Bader Alawadhi will advance with a win over Lee Van Corteza. If they both lose, tiebreakers will determine who advances amongst the 3.
Group 2: Ruslan Chinahov and Oliver Szolnoki (both 3-1) face off to determine the Group winner. The loser potentially faces tie breakers with John Morra, Hunter Lombardo and Abdullah Alyousef.
Group 3: Alex Kazakis has won the Group. Josh Filler (3-1) will advance. Alex Pagulayan advances with a win vs Mathias Arnold.
Group 4: Mario He wins the Group with a victory over Alan Duty, otherwise the winner of the Thorsten Holmann/ Mieszko Fortunski match will win the group. However all 3 players advance regardless of tomorrow’s results.
Group 5: Wiktor Zielinski has won the Group. Fedor Gorst and Mika Immonen will also advance.
Group 6: Aloysius Yapp has won the Group. Darren Appleton and Corey Deuel will also advance.
Group 7: Max Lechner has won the Group. Ralph Souquet also advances. Shawn Wilkie and Mohammad Ali Berjaoui face off for the final spot.
Group 8: Albin Ouschan and Earl Strickland (both 4-0) face off to determine the Group winner. The loser will also advance. The final spot will be awarded to the winner of the Konrad Juszczyszyn/Michael Yednak match.
On Thursday, for the first time in the history of this tournament there will be a Women’s division of the American 14.1 Straight Pool Championship. It is being presented by the PREDATOR GROUP with 15 contestants competing for a purse of $12,000. The field features BCA HOF’s Kelly Fisher and LoreeJon Ogonowski. 3 groups of 5 players will compete in a round-robin format, leading to a single elimination format.
Following a 2020 COVID cancellation, the 16th edition of the American 14.1 Straight Pool Championship returned to action today in Virginia Beach VA at Q Masters Billiards in the fabulous spectator friendly 15 table tournament room. The 2019 tournament was also played at this venue. One of the strongest fields ever assembled for this event were on hand to kick off the 5 day event at noon on Tuesday, all vying for a piece of the $43,000 purse. There is an additional prize awarded to the player who achieves the highest run of the tournament. Any player who has an active run of 100 or more when they close out their match can continue shooting in an attempt to post the high run.
The 48 man field was seeded into 6 levels then split into 8 flights; each flight contains a player from each level (total 6 players per flight). The top 8 seeded players are Shane Van Boening, Ruslan Chinahov (2019 champion), Joshua Filler, Thorsten Hohmann, Fedor Gorst, Darren Appleton, Max Lechner and Albin Ouschan. Each flight will play a round-robin format with races to 125. The top 3 players in each flight then advance to the 24 man single elimination phase of the tournament. All flight winners will receive a first round bye.
Of the top seeds, only Van Boening, Lechner and Ouschan got through day 1 without a loss. Other players that went 2-0 today were Bader Alawadhi, John Morra, Alex Pagulayan, Alex Kazakis, Mieszko Fortunski, Mario He, Mika Immonen, Wiktor Zielinski, Corey Deuel, Aloysius Yapp and Ralph Souquet.
The spotlight player of the day was clearly Van Boening. This is the first time Shane has ever competed in this tournament. But don’t let that fool you – he can flat out play 14.1 as his record in this discipline over the past several years clearly bears this out. He faced Dennis Grabe in his first match where he executed a 94 ball run in the 4th inning to assume control of the match then closed it out in 5, 125-39. He then faced Lee Van Corteza in his second match. Lee Van cleared the first rack, but missed the breakball to open up the second rack. Van Boening stepped to the table and calming ran 15 racks totaling 210 balls to take the game while setting an all-time tournament record of balls run, and in the process treated the capacity crowd to a memorable experience. The previous record was held be Niels Feijen at 176. Shane’s run ended when his position for the breakball of the 16th rack left him with an impossible cut.
Van Boening wasn’t the only player producing high runs on Tuesday. Mika Immonen checked in with a 182 in his second match. That effort was followed by Wiktor Zielinski with a 194 in his match with Fedor Gorst. The run ended on a makeable breakball that failed to find the pocket. The combination of high level 14.1 talent along with the superb playing conditions provided by Q Masters virtually ensures the high runs to continue.
Play resumes Wednesday at noon EST as 2 more round-robin matches are played. Free streaming is available on the American 14.1 Facebook page, the AZBtv Facebook page and from Istreampool on Youtube. Online brackets are available at Cuescore.com. All matches are played on Diamond Pro-Am tables with Simonis 866 cloth and Predator balls. Corner pockets are 4.5” and the sides are 5”.
Home favourite Shane Van Boening is out of the US Open Pool Championship at Harrah’s Resort, Atlantic City at the Last 16 stage as Singapore’s Aloysius Yapp secured a comprehensive 11-5 victory over the five-time champion.
Van Boening went into the penultimate day with eyes firmly set on becoming the most successful player ever at the US Open but Yapp came to spoil the party on the TV table winning the lag and proceeding to break and run in the opening two racks.
It was all one-way traffic as Yapp marched into a 5-0 lead before drama struck in the sixth rack when a discussion took place over whether a shot clock extension had been called before the clock was reset and Van Boening continued the rack.
Yapp continued his ascendancy to an eight-nil lead where Van Boening finally got to show a piece of brilliance taking the ball around two rails after potting the one to get back in position for the table. The American made the next three racks to force a fightback but in truth, it was a tall order against a confident Yapp fresh off the back of finishing runner-up at the World 10-ball last week. He went on the hill at 10-3 before Van Boening took two racks but it wasn’t to be as Yapp sealed a place in the quarter-finals 11-5.
Max Lechner continued his impressive debut by being the first name into the quarters by beating Poland’s Mieszko Fortuński 11-4 to set up a tantalizing clash with Dennis Orcollo. Orcollo overcame Mario He 11-6 live on the Matchroom Pool YouTube as the Filipino joined compatriot Rodrigo Geronimo in the last eight.
Geronimo was involved in one of the biggest battles of the last 16 against Denis Grabe who was fresh off beating former champion Jayson Shaw. It went to hill hill with Geronimo fluking a safety with three balls on the table in the last rack. Grabe scratched after hitting the seven leading to Geronimo having ball in hand to clear up and win.
After the first spectacle on Table 1, there was a lot for David Alcaide and Carlo Biado to live up to and they did just that in a thriller that saw Biado come out on top 11-10 in a dramatic contest. Punches were thrown from each side as they level pegged at various points from 1-1 to 3-3 to 4-4, 6-6, 7-7, 9-9 before going hill hill.
Biado had turned things around against Alcaide before nearly letting it slip at 9-9. A straight miss on the six put Alcaide back at the table who found himself breaking for the match in the last rack, but the Spaniard found himself positionally out of sorts from the break as he missed the two ball as he tried to cut it.
Naoyuki Oi came from behind to beat Francisco Sanchez Ruiz 11-7 where it did look like at one stage Sanchez Ruiz would run away with it. Fedor Gorst meanwhile beat the last remaining Dutchman Marco Teutscher 11-7. Johann Gonzales Chua became the fourth Filipino in the last eight beating John Morra 11-8 despite a fightback from the Canadian late on.
QUARTER-FINAL FIXTURES FROM 3:30 PM (ET)
Aloysius Yapp vs Rodrigo Geronimo (Table 1)
Max Lechner vs Dennis Orcollo (Table 2)
Johann Gonzales Chua vs Carlo Biado (Table 2)
Fedor Gorst vs Naoyuki Oi (Table 1)
The 2021 US Open Pool Championship will be partnered by Diamond, who supply the Official Table; the Official Cloth is supplied by Iwan Simonis and the Official Balls are ARAMITH Tournament BLACK pool ball set with Duramith™ Technology by Saluc. Predator is the Official Cue of the event and Kamui are the Official Chalk and Tip. The US Open Pool Championship is sanctioned by the WPA.
