Long time followers of the WPA World 9-ball Championship know that the event is always full of surprises. The upstarts, the unknowns, the unexpected seem to make a splash in each and every edition of pool’s crowning glory.
As this slowly building drama begins to rise towards a guaranteed thunderous climax six days from now, fans already know the upsets and shocks are going to start mounting. But while the newbies and nobody’s of pool will definitely make their noise, even more true is that good old fashioned sporting standards like experience, possessing a history of winning and performing under crushing pressure are generally going to carry the day.
As day one of the 2014 World 9-ball Championship commenced in this fabulously wealthy desert kingdom this most valuable of athletic tenants carried the storyline in one of the day’s better matches. The Philippines’ Dennis Orcollo would be among any betting man or woman’s top contenders out of the field of 128 players entered here in Doha. But in his first match in the group stage he drew a very difficult opponent in Canada’s Jason Klatt.
Down 6-4, then 8-6 in the race to 9 match, and clearly struggling to find his normally sensational groove, Orcollo was staring at the prospect of a long and arduous road back to reach the final 64. But then, in that manner that champions always put forth, the Filipino star managed to claw back and claim a very hard fought and nervy victory, 9-8. Afterward, Orcollo admitted he was slow to get a feel for the brand new Wiraka table. But he also admitted he’s been around long enough to know what to do when things don’t go your way.
“I felt uncomfortable with the table,” Orcollo said. “I struggled but I didn’t give up. You know I have a lot of experience. And I know that with pressure comes negative thoughts. It’s going to happen in pool. There’s nothing you can do about it. I just try to calm down and stay focused, stay positive and that’s what I did today.”
With the gritty win Orcollo moves to the winner side of his group bracket and now only needs to win one more match to advance to the money rounds. What could have been a disaster has, because of experience, turned into a battle hardening test that will clearly serve the Filipino well moving forward. It also should serve as a lesson for fans looking for an upstart to wreak havoc on the field. Yes, that’s a real possibility in this often wild and crazy sport that is loaded with new and burgeoning talent. But pool, like everything else, generally doesn’t operate outside the laws of the universe. Put a simpler way, the crème generally rises to the top.
There was plenty of tasty crème rising to the top in the 48 matches at the Al Saad Sports Club on Day 1 as most of the favorites claimed victory in the first day of group play. Defending champion Thorsten Hohmann of Germany kicked things off with a 9-2 drubbing of India’s overmatched Sumit Talwar. His opponent in last year’s final, the Philippines Antonio Gabica, didn’t have near as easy a draw, as he found himself locked in battle with two time runner up Kuo Po Cheng of Taiwan.
The USA's Shane Van BoeningMuch like he did last year during his historic run to the finals, Gabica hung around for three fourths of the match, only to pull away at the end for a 9-5 win. Gabica, who’s lived in Qatar for five years and helps coach the Qatar national pool team, admitted afterward that he wasn’t thinking about last year’s finals debacle when nerves and pressure got the better of him and he blew a 6-4 lead to Hohmann. Gabica said this year he was feeling a different kind of pressure; the one that comes from just trying to put food on the family table.
“That’s too much pressure out there,” the friendly Gabica said after the match. “You know at this stage of the tournament if you lose, you don’t get prize money. That’s why I don’t think about last year. I just think about getting to the final 64. I want to get the prize money.”
One player who fans would love to see make a dash to glory is the USA’s Shane Van Boening. The three time and reigning US Open champion has the pedigree to win here in Doha. But Van Boening never seems to perform that well outside the borders of America.
Today Van Boening defeated Eritrea’s very talented Hamzaa M. Saeed Ali, 9-5. After his match, the American opened up about the reasons he feels why he hasn’t yet cracked the winners circle outside of the US borders.
“If it’s winner breaks, then I have a chance,” Van Boening said. “I won three US Opens and they were winner breaks. I’m a rhythm player. I like to run out and then keep playing. I don’t like to give my opponent a chance. I like to put a guy in his chair for a while. With the alternate break format I have a hard time getting in rhythm. “
The Philippines Hall of Famer Efren Reyes clearly couldn’t get in any rhythm today. Several hundred Filipino overseas workers showed up to cheer on their hero but came away disappointed as “Bata” never got in the match as he lost handily to Korea’s Jeong Young Hwa, 9-5.
Other favorites winning solidly today included former champions Mika Immonen of Finland, Germany’s Ralf Souquet, and Wu Jiaqing of China. Also notching solid performances were Greece’s Nick Ekonomopoulos, Niels Feijen of the Netherlands, the Philippines Carlo Biado, and England’s Karl Boyes.
A few dark horses made some noise during today’s four sessions and fans should definitely keep an eye on these upstarts who could wreak havoc in the coming days. China’s Wang Can is perhaps the best of this lot and he looked brilliant today in a 9-2 drubbing of the USA’s Brandon Shuff. Austria’s Mario He seems to have it together at just the right time, as he beat recent China Open winner Chang Yu Lung, 9-7. Ko Ping Chung, the younger brother of Taiwan star Ko Pin Yi, eked out a 9-8 win over Poland’s Karol Skowerski.
Waleed Majed of QatarThe Philippines Warren Kiamco is one of those players who could sneak up on the field in the later rounds. Today the veteran Kiamco carved out a solid 9-7 win over France’s Stephen Cohen. Singapore’s young Aloysius Yapp can’t realistically win this event, but he could stir the pot. Today the boyish Yapp defeated Mohamed Elassal of Egypt 9-5.
Great Britain’s Jasyon Shaw has certainly logged in a few miles in the past few years and is due to make some noise in a big event. He clearly brings the right attitude into the arena, and it’s something others might want to try and copy. That is, if they have the nerve to under all this pressure.
“You’ve gotta take your chances out here,” Shaw said after defeating Taiwan’s Chang Jung Lin, 9-6. “If you don’t take chances, you might as well pack up your cue and go home.”
The group stages continue on Day 2 at the Al Saad on Sunday. All the losers will square off on Day 2 with 32 players being shown the exits by the end of the day’s play. The first session begins at 12 noon local time.(GMT +3)
**The 2014 World 9-ball Championship takes place at the Al Saad Sports Club in Doha, Qatar from June 16-27. The winner of the 2014 World 9-ball Championship will receive $30,000. The runner up will receive $15,000. The total prize fund is $200,000.
The players will be competing on Wiraka New Model Tables with Simonis 860 Cloth, Electric Blue Color and using Aramith Super Pro TV Balls.
The Qatar Billiard and Snooker Federation, which is once again hosting and organizing the World 9-ball Championship, will be providing free live streaming of the entire tournament on its website, http://live.qbsf.qa/.
The view the complete brackets for the Group Stages, please CLICK HERE
The WPA will be on hand in Doha throughout this year’s World 9-ball Championship providing up to the minute information, live scoring, photographs and in depth articles with insights and analysis from WPA Press Officer Ted Lerner.
Fans can interact with us through the WPA’s official Facebook Page for the event at this link;https://www.facebook.com/wpaworld9ballchampionship
The WPA is also on Twitter; @poolwpa
For more information you can also visit the WPA website at www.wpapool.com. Fans can also visit the website of the Qatar Billiard and Snooker Federation at; www.qbsf.qa
*The 2014 World 9-ball Championship will be held in Doha, Qatar from June 16-27,2014 and is sanctioned by the World Pool & Billiard Association(WPA), the world governing body of the sport of pocket billiards. 128 players from across the globe will compete for the most prestigious prize in Men’s Pool. The 2014 World 9-ball Championship is a WPA ranking event.
RESULTS FROM DAY 1
Winners need one more win to advance to the Final 64. Losers move to the losers side of their group bracket. All groups are double elimination.
A.Moussati, M.Sawicki, N.Feijen and H.Charalampidis
Saturday morning we started off with the MAIN 9ball EVENT…
1st four groups of 24 started off at 09:00h. All went well as nobody got sanctioned with a penalty, neither did anyone forfeit or no-show.
Group A saw one of the favorites Ivo Aarts sail through to the 2nd Winners round with wins over Kaylash Persad, Olivier Vandenbohede. In the 3rd round however he got beaten by UK’s Tony Burton who did not lose a match to qualify for the last64. Marek Derek, Serge Das and Tobias Hoiß all did the same thing by defeating Kadir Turku, Hoa Nguyen, Nicolas Georgopoulos and Tom Penrose. Three of them eventually qualified for the Knock-Out stage themselves by winning their subsequent matches. So did Ivo Aarts in the end.
Group B’s 2nd Winners Round had some strong matches and some surprises as Luxemburg’s Sebastian Beuel beat German 1.Bundesliga playing Klaudio Kerec 8-4 and Karl Boyes did the same thing to Sixpocket’s admin Florian Scholl. Both losers redeemed themselves in the 3rd Losers Round by defeating Joerie van den Broeck and Stefan Sprangers, the latter one not being as slouch. Through the winners side Daryl Peach, Karl Boyes, Bartek Skoniecki and Konrad Juszczyszyn qualified for the Last64 without losing a match. From the Losers round Carlos Cabello, Raphael Keusen, Sebastian Beuel and Klaudio Kerec joined them. Unfortunately some good players went down, like: Alain Da Costa and Maurice Houben.
Group C had some strong players, winning their 1st matches with ease; Niels Feijen beat greek player Theodore Bitsaxakis 8-2, Wojtek Trajdos did the same thing to UK’s Tom Stavely. Aziz Moussati lost to strong playing Benji Buckley 3-8 and after that 7-8 to Peter Lau. This saw him drop out of the 9ball. He said he could not focus on playing because of all the things that went on regarding organization etc. I myself had the same problem. Further in this group’s losers side Matthias Blehs got rid of Walter Hottgenroth and Benjamin Baier. On the winners side Niels handed a donut to Trajdos and Stephan Cohen beat Marcel Fortunski to both qualify for the Last64. Tobias Bongers and Benji Buckley sent Kyle Van den Bosch and Martin Steinlage to the last losers round. 4 players took their last chance to qualify; Trajdos beat Peter Lau 8-4, Bitsaxakis – Steinlage 8-3, Fortunski did the same thing to Del Sim. Matthias Blehs handed out the second donut of the group to Kyle van den Bosch.
Group D featured some strong playing German Bundesliga players; Stefan Nolle and Valery Kuloyants who got rid of their opponents Gijs van Westebrugge and Edward Werlemann pretty quickly in the 1st round. 2nd Winners Round matches went pretty quickly as well when Mieszko Fortunski beat Lex Wellens 8-0, Tony Drago vs. Jan Van Lierop 8-1. Mieszko continued his strong form by winning 8-0 again in his following match against Michael Kasper. Other favorites did not have that same luck as Tony Drago lost to strong youngster Francisco Sanchez Ruiz. Ralf Souquet showed Stefan Nolle who’s boss with a score of 8-5 and Valery did the same thing to Konrad Piekarski. From the losers round the following players eventually went on to qualify for the Last64: Tony Dargo over Sean Dennis with a score of 8-1, Stefan Nolle beat Jan van Lierop 8-2, Konrad Piekarski against Lex Wellens 8-4.
In the afternoon the last 4 groups started their matches, some of the previous groups had to qualify the next morning some of them were done..
Group E surprised a bit when Micha Beuriot beat Guy Buss in the first round and one of the favs Imran Majid got beaten by Nicolas Baumanns. I got my donut handed to me by Noel Bruynooghe.. Couldn’t focus on my game with all the stuff happening around me and had to get comfortable with my new cue as well. Noel played a very good match though, missing maybe 1 ball the entire match. He later on went and qualified for the Last64 by beating Sebastian Fuhrmann. One of the other strong favorites Mateusz Sniegocki sailed through with a score of 8-0 in his 2nd and 3rd match as well. Fast playing Marko Vogel struggled a bit but in the end got through with a hill-hill against Mario Stahl, who himself also eventually got through by beating Lennaert Speijker 8-1 in the losers round. Imran Majid, Robin Cripps, Anthony Wever also went on to qualify winning their matches in the 4th losers round.
Group F consisted of some great players like Oliver Ortmann and Juan Carlos Exposito, who met each other in the latter stages. Oliver first beat fellow countryman Michael Heinz with a big score of 8-0. Think Michael couldn’t get his rhythm going as he normally played way better than that. Norman Bakker surprisingly beat JCE 8-1, Greek fury Xrhstos Davetas beat Thomas Aschauer 8-4 and strong playing Marc Bijsterbosch beat Sven Wenkheimer with easy and a final score of 8-2. In the 3rd Winners round some big matches emerged like Ramazan Dincer vs. Ortmann (8-6), Elliot Sanderson vs. Marc Bijsterbosch (8-5) and Adrian Borowiec vs. Davetas (8-4). So now the losers qualification had some great thrillers going where Exposito met with Ortmann and beat him 8-5, which caused a bit of an upset. Also Hector del Amo Garcia who lost his 1st match got through to the last round and bear Sven Pauritsch to qualify. Marc Bijsterbosch also redeemed himself and beat Waikit Kwok after a hard battle. Davetas was the last one to set his score and got through.
Group G featured some big names like Mario He, David Alcaide and Phil Burford. But also strong formed Joshua Filler who had made a name for himself at DCC by winning the 9ball Banks against Nick v/d Berg in the final. 1st round saw no surprises and all big names went through to the next one. Then we had a big match-up when Mario He drew David Alcaide in the next round and beat him on the hill. David eventually got through to the last round and got through. Joshua showed that age does not matter and shot his way through Phil Burford at the arena with a score of 8-6. Marco Teutscher also went through over Jimmy Worung (8-5). In the 3rd winner round more surprises came when Daniel Kandi beat strong favorite Mario He. Furthermore Mark Lunn beat OC Chan, Teutscher beat Jelle Kijlstra and Joshua Filler knocked his countryman Clemens Phillipen to the losers round. Last chance to qualify for the Last64.. Phil Burford, Julian Kortüm, previously mentioned David Alcaide and Ralf Mrnka did so.
Group H was the final one and had 2013 Champion Nick Van Den Berg starting his journey to defend his crown. Started off with a bye and then went on to qualify for the Last64 by beating German Bundesliga player Kevin Becker and Belgian WCOP player Moritz Lauwereyns in his 3rd match. More strong players started off well; Huidji See beat Female player Vivien Schade 8-0, Jakob Belka vs. Olivier van Loteringen went down with 8-2. 2nd round winners side had some good matches when Dennis Jansen beat Hanno Bröcker on the Hill, Wojtek Szewczyk knocked his countryman Jakob Belka to the losers-side and youngster Aaron Vancoppenolle did the same thing to strong Female Chantal Manske. Last winners round saw all the favorites go through; NvdB, Szewczyk, See and Dennis Janssen, all with ease. Losers side saw Lars Kuckherm, Belka, Becker and Mauwereyns go through.
So that was it for the groups.. Now on to the Last 64 of the 9ball MAIN-EVENT and the 9ball DROP-OUT Challenge.
Around 10:00h on Sunday some matches of the Knock-Out stage began early, but most started around 12:00h.
Some noticeable wins were Moritz Lauwereyns beating his former WCOP team-mate Serge Das with a score of 9-5. Phil Burford beat his countryman Karl Boyes 9-7. Ivo Aarts beat Mateusz Sniegocki 9-8 after trailing 8-6. Konrad Piekarski beat Noel Bruynooghe with an easy 9-4. Norman Bakker got close with Matthias Blehs but beat him on the hill. Raphael Keusen beat strong playing Daniel Kandi on the hill as well. So did Carlos Cabello vs. Mark Lunn.
On to the Last32 where more surprises came along when Wojtek Szewczyk beat Huidji See with ease, final score of 9-5. Moritz Lauwereyns kept his form and beat last year’s Runner-Up Marek Derek 9-6. Konrad Juszczyszyn also shocked everyone when he kept his nerve on the hill against Phil Burford and beat him. More strong play by Ivo Aarts, Imran Majid, Ralf Souquet, Konrad Piekarski, Joshua Filler, Nick van den Berg, Niels Feijen, Tobias Hoiß who all went through to the Last16.
Surely now at this stage you would think only the strong favorites would emerge.. but no, Moritz Lauwereyns continued his form and beat Tobias Hoiß 9-7. Konrad Piekarski being the underdog against Ivo Aarts showed who’s who and beat him 9-5. Mario He did not disappoint and beat Juszczyszyn 9-5 as well. But the biggest surprises of them all was Wojtek Szewczyk taking his revenge on Nick van den Berg from last year at the quarter-finals. After trailing a couple of games Wojtek in the end prevailed and beat the struggling Nick 9-7. Fair to say Nick was dealing with some personal issues on the side. Nevertheless a great performance by the young Pole. More names that went through to the Last8 were Filler, Majid, Feijen and a player I would like to call the new ‘DARK HORSE’ ; Marcel Fortunski. Did not know Marcel had so much in him.. he went through to this stage by beating some big names in my book; Ramazan Dincer (5x 1.Bundesliga Champion), Normal Bakker (strong Dutch player), Elliot Sanderson (GB9 Tour) .. Well DONE!
At this stage our well prized DROP-OUT Challenge began, this tournament was created to let players have another change at some good prize-money and to let them enjoy our venue some more. Where at other tournament after losing twice you didn’t have a chance to redeem yourself.. @ DCC players still did! The Tournament had the same format and rules but shorter races and single knock-out.. so fast play and surprise results were expected. When people found out that the tournament was opened to more than 64 players, whey immediately signed up and the final field was 80.
Moritz again shocked everyone on the TV Table and beat strong favorite Mario He. Feijen showed who boss against Majid by beating him 9-5. Piekarski went on 6-1 against Marcel Fortunski in about 20 minutes but then lost focus and let the young player get back at him a little bit but in the end closed it off with a final score of 9-7. Joshua Filler kept cool against Szewczyk to beat him 9-5.
Semis both played on the TV tables, the match-ups were; Feijen vs. Lauwereyns and Filler vs. Piekarski. Both matches quickly showed who the better players was on Sunday. Even through the youngster match had a bigger score it was over pretty quick cus of fast run-outs and no safety battles. Niels and Moritz took a while longer as tactics came into play. Niels finally closed the deal with a 9-2 win.
So Holland vs. Germany in the FINAL! Niels quickly showed that the break in 9ball ET Style is mastered by those who regularly play the format and broke and ran most of his racks. Joshua struggled to get runs round because he lost his cue-ball a lot. Niels in front is unstoppable, I knew that from the get-go. Proved me right by winning and becoming the NEW 2014 ‘PREDATOR’ Deurne City Classic® CHAMPION !! Congrats Niels Feijen
Though "MASTER OF THE TABLE" title goes to Joshua Filler ! Winning the 9ball banks, 14.1 Shootout and becoming Runner-up in the 9ball MAIN-EVENT!
Cison di Valmarino, Italy: The "Maharaja" Imran Majid (GBR) ousted local hero "Fabulous" Fabio Petroni (ITA) with 9:5 from the tournament.
Majid was the better player in the match and deserved the victory. He had balls down in 86% of his break shots with a 67% shot on the lowest numbered ball. Furthermore, he broke and ran 3 racks on Fabio. The Italian played a match of ups and downs. His break ratio was 100%, he always had a ball down on the break. But only in 29% was he able to play the lowest numbered ball.
In the early stage of the match it looked like Majid would not allow it to become a fight at all. He was leading 4:0 after four racks, not leaving a chance for Petroni so far. A mistake which Majid committed in rack five opened the door for Petroni to get the first point in his account. Majid snookered himself and gave an open table away to Petroni. As the match went on, it was obvious that Majid was the player in better shape today. He played more constant and his safety shots were more efficient than Petroni’s. Also, the break shot efficiency from Majid outscored Petroni by a mile. In the 14th rack, Majid broke the balls and had a possible layout in front of him. All of a sudden, Petroni gave up, shook hands and unscrewed his cue sticks. That was a bit strange since he was only trailing three racks at the time. However, Majid deserved the victory and will now proceed to the round of the final 16 players which will be played tomorrow morning at 10:00 local time.
All tables will be streamed LIVE throughout the event. Join in on www.kozoom.com/en/pool-billiard/ and become a premium member in order to enjoy all features of the site.
In the past week, the EPBF has launched its brand-new website. You can check all information around European pool at www.epbf.com Enjoy!
The event is hosted by the European Governing Body for Pool, the European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) and organized by International Billiard Promotion (IBP). For further information and reference please go to the federation website http://www.eurotouronline.eu or contact our press office.
Sarajevo, Bosnia & Hercegovina: 21-year-old Mieszko Fortunski (POL) just ended all hopes for Bruno Muratore (ITA), ousting him clearly with 8:3.
It has not been the best tournament for Italy's Bruno Muratore. He lost his second match to Fortunski's teammate Kudlik with 6:8. On the one-loss-side, he achieved a close 8:7 victory over his fellow countryman Gabriele Crovetto which brought him into the match against Fortunski. The Polish youngster had just received a whitewash from Dimitri Jungo with 8:0. Psychologically, the advantage should have been on Muratore's side. He just won a fiercely contested match. But as often in life, things do not happen as expected. In fact, Muratore never got started in the match. After seven racks he was trailing 1:6. A disaster was looming ahead of him. Suddenly, Fortunski showed some weakness and Muratore had to get back in the match or die trying. The Italian got back, winning two racks in a row, showing that he is by far not yet finished. However, Fortunski was not too impressed by that. He continued on his road to victory and took another two racks for a spot in the loser's qualification round while Muratore's journey in the Dynamic Billard Bosnia & Hercegovina Open Euro-Tour ended in 49th rank.
Other notable results from the winner's qualification round include player of the year 2012 Nick Van Den Berg (NED) winning over his teammate Stefan Sprangers (NED) by the skin of his teeth with 8:7. The same result was good for former World Champion Oliver Ortmann (GER) in his match with Andreas Gerwen (SWE). On the loser's side, the tournament for Euro-Tour ranking leader Niels Feijen (NED) continues. After losing to Cohen last night, he terminated Juan Carlos Exposito (ESP) today with 8:7.
The event is hosted by the European Governing Body for Pool, the European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) and organized by International Billiard Promotion (IBP). For further information and reference please go to the federation website http://www.eurotouronline.eu or contact our press office.
