Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Ouschan's Eleven – 2022 pool

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    #51
    Matchroom's Twitter account never responded to my question about stripping the Kremlin Cup of ranking status, and nor have they posted anything about it on their pool website as far as I can see, but from the list of ranking events at the bottom of their write-up of Van Boening's win, it looks like they have quietly made the right decision. Unless my memory is playing tricks on me it seems they've also added nineball events at next week's Super Billiards Expo in Philadelphia and next month's Bucharest Open to their ranking events list. The winners of those titles will take US$10,000 and €5,000 respectively, so they won't be huge for ranking points, but the event in Philly will be good for American players, who've had two or three events added to the list after initially feeling like they were being unfairly treated when Matchroom released the original list back in the first few days of the year (Matchroom's stated aim was always to add more events to the rankings as the year progressed and they convinced more promoters to come on board with their regulations, but one thing I've learnt from listening to pool podcasts and lurking on a forum or two is that pool players often don't bother reading the details before shooting their mouths off about how shit everything is).

    Comment


      #52
      In personal news, I've finally taken a big deep breath and messaged an acquaintance who plays for a local team to ask whether he knows anyone I can hire for one-to-one classes. My dream is to not be shit by the end of the year, and to be perhaps creeping towards 'good in a certain light, if you squint a bit and don't know much about the game' by the time I turn 40 (which is in just under two years' time).

      Comment


        #53
        Update to the personal news: I've now got in touch with the coach, and she's travelling until mid-June, so my plans for world domination will be put on hold for a couple of months.

        Comment


          #54
          This thread's been on a bit of a hiatus due to my being dead busy, but to get the latest big tournament news updated: Joshua Filler won the World Pool Masters, beating surprise package Lo Ho Sum of Hong Kong – an alumnus of the cuesports academy run by Terry Griffths's son, apparently – 9–6 in the final. From some of the interviews with players around the tournament, including Filler's post-final interview, it sounds like Matchroom have told the players they plan to transition to four-inch pockets for more tournaments in the future. That's the size they've used at the Masters for a few years now, and at least year's World Cup of Pool and Mosconi Cup, so if they're going to use them for ranking events as well it should be really good to watch. Filler says he had his table provider take the pockets on his home table down to four inches as soon as Matchroom informed him of the decision, so he's been practising on them for a while, and it showed as he looked by far the most comfortable player out of the gate. Lo looks like a hell of a player to watch for the future.

          Former world champion Darren Appleton lost to Filler early on and, riled by Filler's overenthusiastic reaction (Filler does have a bit of a habit of getting under some opponents' skin and comes across as a bit of a dick sometimes), and frustrated at being picked out for a WADA test for the second time in a week, he lost his temper behind the scenes and has been given a ten-week ban. That means he'll miss the UK Open, which kicks off on Tuesday, and also leaves Jayson Shaw scrambling around to find a new teammate for the World Cup of Pool, which GB would have been among the favourites for given the form Appleton's played himself back into so far this year (and the form Shaw's been in for some time now).

          The UK Open begins at 9am BST on Tuesday, and Matchroom will be streaming table 1 on their Facebook page and table 2 on their YouTube channel. Links to both can be found here if you're interested.

          Comment


            #55
            The UK Open is ticking along nicely, with probably the biggest drama so far (on the TV tables, at least) coming at the end of day 1 when Derby City Classic 9-ball winner Francisco Sánchez Ruíz came within a whisker of being eliminated. He lost his opening match 9–6 to South Africa's Jason Theron, and in the last match of the day on the losers' side was 6–0 down to India's Ashik Nathwani, pulled it back to 7–7 before going behind 8–7 and then rolling off the last two racks to win 9–8 and remain in the competition. Nathwani looked a hell of a player to be almost totally unheard of.

            In a clash of world champions, Shane Van Boening has just sent Ralf Soquet to the losers' side 9–3, while over on table 2 Joshua Filler has handed the US's shining young hope Shane Wolford a 9–1 defeat. Tomorrow is judgement day (as they call it on the broadcast at these big events), when the double elimination format comes to an end and we find out which players will survive the winners' and losers' sides to advance to the last 16.

            And it's just as well that isn't until tomorrow, because it would be an awful shame if all that drama were overshadowed by the really big news of the day: the World Cup of Pool teams have been announced. Elliott Sanderson, who's been around the GB 9-ball scene for a long time but hasn't broken through on the world level, will be Darren Appleton's replacement to partner Jayson Shaw for GB, but that's not the big news ... the Philippines will be represented by reigning US Open champion Carlo Biado ... and that's still not the big news ... because the BIG news is that Biado will be partnered by an arthritic 67-year-old GOAT by the name of Efren 'Bata' Reyes! Sure, Denis Orcollo or any one of the considerably younger and closer-to-their-peak players the Philippines could have sent might have been more sensible choices (although not Jeff De Luna, with whom Biado didn't really gel when they formed a team at a previous WCoP), but ... Efren!

            Comment


              #56
              Oh, and as I was typing that post the last table 1 match of the day has begun. It's on the losers' side, and it sees double world champ Albin Ouschan currently 1–0 up against Gary Wilson, of snooker fame. I've not seen any of Wilson's matches so far but I'm impressed he's still in the tournament at this stage (although suspect he might not be after this one). That being said, I've just looked at his list of opponents so far. I've never heard of any of them and he hasn't exactly steamrollered them like Judd Trump did to his opponents prior to meeting Shaw at last year's US Open. Based on the one shot he got in rack 1 just now against Ouschan, though, Wilson has learnt how to play a jump shot, which Trump hadn't.

              Comment


                #57
                Oh, and it turns out I'll have not two (the hosts always get an A and a B team at the World Cup, and it's in Essex so GB will also be represented by Chris Melling and Imran Majid for GB B) but three teams to support at the World Cup, because an Argentine team will be there! Ariel Castro, who I've heard of, will be partnered by Sebastián Rodríguez, who I've not.

                Comment


                  #58
                  The semis are set at the UK Open, and will kick off at 11am local time on Sunday, with the final getting going at 5:30pm.

                  World champion Shane Van Boening thrashed Dutchman Marc Bijsterbosch 11–1 this morning (well, it started in the morning) before taking down fellow American Skyler Woodward 11–7 in the quarters. He'll meet marathon man Francisco Sánchez Ruíz of Spain, who since losing his very first match has come all the way through the losers' side of the draw, and who took down Filipino great Dennis Orcollo 11–7 in the last sixteen before beating Poland's breakthrough star Daniel Maciol (as if the game needed another shit-hot Polish player right now) 11–5 in what was apparently a very impressive quarter-final performance (only table 1 was televised/streamed for the semis, so we didn't get a full look at two of the semis).

                  On the other half of the draw there's another Spanish semi-finalist, because David Alcaide came past Bosnia's Sanjin Pehlivanovic 11–2 and then won a safety-packed match 11–8 over Austria's Mario He. Alcaide will play Joshua Filler, who beat the last Brit remaining, former Mosconi Cup winner Imran Majid, 11–3 and then came through a hill–hill thriller (so annoying table 2 wasn't streamed!) to beat Serbia's Aleksa Pecelj, who's put in the biggest performance of his short career to date this week.

                  Fortunately on Sunday it's a one-table setup, so everything will be live (streaming around the world, Sky Sports for those in the UK). Alcaide v Filler is first up, SVB v Sánchez Ruíz will follow.

                  In other news, the Billiard Congress of America have finished verifying the video of Jayson Shaw's record straight pool run of 714 from a couple of months ago. They've confirmed he has the record, but spotted a foul (Shaw touched an object ball) on the forty-fifth ball of the run, which means the official record Shaw is credited with is 669 balls.

                  Comment


                    #59
                    Joshua Filler is the first ever UK Open champion after beating Francisco 'Marathon Man' Sánchez Ruíz 11–7 in the final. The stream was a total shitshow for those of us outside the UK – for nearly the first hour we were treated to a view from the camera sitting on the floor in front of the shot clock desk, looking at the underside of the table and occasionally the undercarriages of the cameramen and the referee as they went about their jobs. Filler went into a 3–0 lead, was pegged back to 3–3 and when the pictures came up it was 4–3 to Sánchez Ruíz, who stretched ahead to 7–3 in front before having to take a jump shot on the 1 ball which rattled the jaws and stayed up. Filler sank that and left himself with a jump on the 2 which he fluffed ... only to see it roll off the bottom rail and go in the left middle pocket off the 6. From that point on it was a break-and-run masterclass; I'm not sure FSR even got back to the table.

                    Shane Van Boening's world championship winnings mean he's still 2023 provisional no. 1 by some distance, but Filler and FSR are now second and third. Mosconi Cup watchers will be starting to pay particularly close attention to the 2023 rankings for the rest of the year, as three spots on each team will be decided by world ranking. At present, there are no other Americans in the top 32 (which is as far down as the on-page rankings go on the Matchroom site; I can't be arsed to download the full list), while Europe have Albin Ouschan at no. 4, Alex Kazakis at no. 5 and another eleven players in the top 20. The US Open is still to come, of course, but it feels slightly ominous for the States that there were a fair few American players involved at this event and only SVB and Woodward made it to the last weekend. It should also feel ominous for them, of course, that the Europeans dominated the Derby City Classic (right across the disciplines).

                    The next Nineball ranking event is the Sandcastle 9-Ball Open in New Jersey from 3 to 5 June, then we'll have the (non-ranking) World Cup of Pool in Essex from 14 to 19 June, where it's rumoured Efren Reyes's presence on the Philippines team is going to be used as part of an announcement of an Efren Reyes Cup to be held in the new year between the Mosconi Cup winners and an Asian team. I think I mentioned this idea at the start of the year. I love it.

                    10-ball-wise, the Predator Germany Open will run almost concurrently with the World Cup of Pool (14–18 June), so expect to see a whole lot of Europeans who didn't make it into the World Cup (which still means some of the very best 10-ball players in the world) involved in that one.

                    Comment


                      #60
                      The draw has been made for the first round of the World Cup of Pool, which begins next Tuesday. As if to prove that it's an entirely random draw, the two Great Britain teams have been drawn against each other while the United States – represented by reigning world champion Shane Van Boening and Skyler Woodward, and among the favourites for the title – are up against a very dangerous Canadian side consisting of Alex Pagulayan and John Morra. Morra takes ambidexterity to a new level: he's 33, and won a bunch of stuff just below the very top level as a right-handed player before deciding to change last year to now play predominantly with his left. South Africa have a showdown with the GOAT, as they've been drawn against the Philippines. And it's a tough draw for Argentina, who'll have to play another of the favourites, Taiwan (this correspondent doesn't go in for the 'Chinese Taipei' stuff). The full draw, in quarters (so winners of the first two matches play each other in the next round, then play the team who come through from matches 3 and 4 in the semis) looks like this:

                      1. Germany (reigning champs) v New Zealand
                      2. Netherlands v Morocco
                      3. Taiwan v Argentina
                      4. Greece v Cyprus

                      5. Philippines v South Africa
                      6. Great Britain A v Great Britain B
                      7. Albania v Italy
                      8. Spain v Australia

                      9. Austria v Finland
                      10. Estonia v Serbia
                      11. Kuwait v Vietnam
                      12. Singapore v Qatar

                      13. Japan v Switzerland
                      14. Hungary v Czech Republic
                      15. Poland v Hong Kong
                      16. USA v Canada

                      A reminder that the format is Scotch doubles, meaning players take it in turns to take shots rather than visits to the table. Always makes for good watching because no one has the chance to really get up a head of steam. Hard to pick a single team as favourites, but the American pair have a great relationship and know each other's games well, and while loads of the other teams have one very strong and one absolutely world class player, the ones for whom it's really quite hard to pick who's the stronger right now are Poland (Miesko Fortuński and Wojciech Szewczyk), Kuwait (Omar Al-Shaheen and Bader Al-Awadhi), Taiwan (the two better-known Ko brothers, Pin Yi and Ping Chung) and Spain (Davíd Alcaide and Francisco Sánchez Ruíz). As for reigning champions Germany, it might be plain as day that Joshua Filler, who's won the last two Matchroom events in a row, is the better player of their pair, but he's partnered this year by Thorsten Hohmann, who's one of the most successful players ever and so far this year has been looking like he's getting towards what he used to be able to do, so they're definitely stronger than they were last year, when they won it. And let's not forget Austria, who similarly have one player (Albin Ouschan) who's definitely better than the other (Max Lechner), but can still afford to leave Mario He – a former winner of this very event alongside Ouschan – out of their team.

                      And then there's the Philippines, with Carlo Biado and The Greatest. They're a very long shot, you'd think, but if Biado's on top of his game they might well scare GB in the second round, because Efren's recent showings have made clear that while he doesn't have the firepower of old he's still perhaps the cleverest player in the business, and when he comes to play he does not come to play, if you catch my drift. There'll be at least one moment when an opponent thinks they've got him horribly hooked and he gets out of it in style and leaves them locked up even worse, or it's not an Efren match.

                      If I have to predict, I'll go Germany v Spain in the top-half semi (the Taiwanese don't seem to have quite got used to the tables and the white heat of competition since the pandemic just yet) and Poland (but could just as easily be USA) v Austria (but Kuwait wouldn't surprise me) in the bottom half. And Germany to defend their title, unfortunately (love Hohmann; can't stand Filler). But the beauty of the World Cup, as I said above, is that the format makes it incredibly unpredictable.

                      A potted history: this event was first played in 2006 in Newport, where Efren and Francisco Bustamante beat the USA's Earl Strickland and Rodney Morris in the final. The Philippines and China each won two of the first five events, both times with the same pairings; Li He-wen and Fu Jian-bo won for China in 2007 and 2010, while Reyes and Bustamante beat Germany in front of a home crowd in Quezon City in 2009. Those four players and Albin Ouschan are the only individuals to have won the tournament more than once; there are a few players (Van Boening, Filler, Hohmann (who didn't win Germany's previous titles together), Ko Pin Yi and Finland's Mika Immonen) who could join that club this time out. Efren, of course, could become the first player to win it three times, but Ouschan is rather more likely to do so. The Philippines were the first country to win it three times, Dennis Orcollo and Lee Vann Corteza lifting their third crown in London in 2013, and were joined by China thanks to the efforts of Wu Jia-qing and Liu Haitao in 2018. The other winners are Austria (2017 and 2019) and Germany (2011 and 2021) twice each, and the USA (2008), Finland (2012), Great Britain (as England in 2014) and Taiwan (2015) once. The Netherlands have been runners-up twice, Thailand and Poland once each. Philippines and USA also have two final losses each, while Great Britain (again, as England until 2018) have lost more finals than anyone else, with three – including last year's amazing run to the final by an at the time very out of sorts Darren Appleton and a retired(!) Karl Boyes for Great Britain C, who stepped in at the last minute to replace Canada after they had to pull out due to a positive COVID test. That reminded everyone that a shock run in this competition is very much possible with the right chemistry and a fair bit of talent and knowledge, so maybe fans of the Philippines can dare to dream ... did I mention Efren's playing?

                      Comment


                        #61
                        Oh no! The World Cup began today, and the Philippines have had to withdraw due to 'travel issues' (that's as much detail as Matchroom are giving us), so no Efren. Curses.

                        They're being replaced by Thailand, who are represented by snooker player Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Noppon Saengkham.

                        Comment


                          #62
                          Just done a bit of investigating. Biado has a UK visa, but (presumably because of what a relatively last-minute decision it was before teams were announced) Efren didn't, and was relying on a 'priority' application that should have gone through in five or six days. Except apparently no one had told them that that option doesn't exist any more. Biado called round a few other Filipino players but couldn't find a replacement in time.

                          I find a little surprising that Matchroom, as a UK-based company with plenty of marketing reasons to want to get the GOAT involved in one of their events, couldn't provide Efren with up-to-date instructions on how to enter the country.

                          Comment


                            #63
                            On day 1 of the World Cup, every match went to the favourites, and the only one that didn't go quite as expected was USA v Canada, which should have been rather closer than the 7–1 blowout it was in the USA's favour. Hungary looked a bit out of sorts but came through 7–4 against the Czech Republic in the only match of the day that the favourites probably wouldn't have been odds-on for. It wasn't a good day for the Antipodes: Australia and New Zealand both lost 7–1, to Germany and Spain respectively. Argentina managed slightly better, losing 7–2 to two thirds of the Ko siblings (AKA Taiwan). Albania beat Italy 7–2 in the other one.

                            That all means we know that Albania will face Spain in the second round, but the other teams who've gone through will need to wait a day or two to find out who they'll play. On Wednesday Poland play Hong Kong, Greece play Cyprus (nice!), the Netherlands play Morocco, Great Britain A play Great Britain B, Estonia play Serbia and Austria play Finland.

                            I'll have to look over the Germany Open 10-ball action to post an update on that at some point as well.

                            Comment


                              #64
                              Spain are the World Cup of Pool champions! Davíd Alcaide and Francisco Sánchez Ruíz of Spain (who got past Taiwan in the semis) beat Aloysius Yapp and his coach, Toh Lian Han of Singapore (who put the US out earlier in the day) to claim their country's first title, 11–6. Spain started strong before Singapore came back into it, and at one point it was 7–6 and looking like it might go all the way, but they pulled clear, and won it with a coolly played 2-9 billiard from Alcaide after Sánchez Ruíz had sunk the 1 on the break.

                              Obviously I'd been sticking up for the underdogs, but I'm happy for Spain. They both seem like lovely guys, FSR is having the best year of his career and increasingly I think that when I go for my first pool lesson, if the coach asks which pro I'd most like to copy the style of, I'd pick Alcaide.

                              The next 9-ball ranking event is the European Open, which has now been confirmed for Fulda in Germany from 9 to 14 August.

                              The Predator Germany Open 10-ball was won by Greece's Dimitris Loukatos, who beat Wiktor Zielinski in a shootout in the final, and the women's division was won by – surprise, surprise – Kelly Fisher, who claimed her third Pro Billiard Tour title in nine months by beating Eylul Kibaroglu, also in a shootout.

                              Comment


                                #65
                                A World Games update (although I didn't see any of the action as it wasn't screened here): in the men's tournament Joshua Filler beat Sanjin Pehlivanovic 11–8 in the final, with Aloysius Yapp beating Carlo Biado by the same score in the bronze medal match. The women's tournament went the way women's tournaments always tend to go, which is to say Kelly Fisher won it – she beat Chieh-Yu Chou of Taiwan 9–5 in the final. Japan's Yuki Hiraguchi took bronze, beating Germany's Veronika Ivanovskaia 9–7.

                                And having not played in nearly two months due to having COVID and being really busy, I made it out on Friday for a practice session and found that the pool room have finally had all their tables reclothed. The difference is startling: without really practising breaking, I was crushing the 8-ball break in a manner I've never previously managed to do on a nine-foot table, and any shot requiring some effect on the cue ball results in a lot more feel and consistency of reaction – in particular, on the old, knackered cloth I'd struggle to draw the cue ball back at all consistently if it was more than about a foot from the object ball, but with the tables in their new state I could put the cue ball two or three feet away, play the object ball into a pocket and bring the cue ball the full length of the table. A glorious feeling when you get the timing on your stroke right. In more annoying news, the woman I'd been hoping to get lessons from appears to have dropped off the face of the Earth ...

                                Comment


                                  #66
                                  An interesting development coming up in the Matchroom tour: the European Open begins next Tuesday, and in news that Rogin the Armchair fan ought to like, given his disappointment with the easy breaking at last year's US Open, it will be the first event with new rules for breaking. The rack is being moved a little higher up the table – the 9 ball rather than the 1 will be on the spot between the two second diamonds up the long rails – and players will only be allowed to break from within an area known as 'the box', which is calculated by drawing two straight lines from the spot to the two diamonds on either side of the kitchen-end short rail (the kitchen being the end the breaker breaks from). The simple version is: they've got to break from near the middle of the table. Moving the rack up and not allowing players to break from the side of the table mean the wing ball isn't going to be wired to go straight into the corner pocket so regularly even I could probably manage it most of the time and make it much harder to sink the 1 in one of the side pockets (or at least come close to doing so). The players voted on this themselves, and the vote (according to Karl Boyes on a YouTube video he put up over the weekend) was something like 90% in favour. If you're interested in this, below is a video from Darren Appleton, which he put up around the time he had his ban imposed I seem to remember, in which he demonstrates the various options, talks through the pros and cons of each, and says he hopes Matchroom will move to 9 on the spot (it's probably a bit nerdy for everyone really, but I'm putting it in in case anyone reading the thread in silence actually finds it interesting). This will result in far fewer break and runs, and as a result far fewer lopsided scores. (I'm also hoping it will mean matches go on longer, and that I'll therefore have a bit more pool to watch when I get up later in the day for the tournaments in Europe.)



                                  Meanwhile I've spent about seven or eight hours practising between Saturday and Monday (my girlfriend's doing a master's degree on Saturdays, and Monday is my day off from my retainer) and have started to actually see some noticeable improvements that aren't just down to the lovely new cloth on the tables. Am starting to wish I had a break cue so as to not have to keep breaking with my playing cue, though, so if any of you lot in the US are planning a holiday to Buenos Aires and fancy doing a bit of couriering in return for lunch and some drinks, do get in touch ...

                                  Comment


                                    #67
                                    Lots going on in the European Open, and the time difference means I'm only catching bits and pieces of it, but anyone checking out the table 2 live stream on YouTube will have noticed how much of a difference the new racking position and breaking rules are making: it's relatively easy for the top players to cut the 1 ball in (though nowhere near as easy as before, and very hard indeed to make a wing ball), but far harder for them to do so while controlling the cue ball. The result is far more even matches and far fewer break and runs. Easily the best breaking performance so far (that I've seen, and also that the commentators said they'd seen) came from Eklent Kaçi against Wiktor Zielinski, when Kaçi was down 4–3 and came back to win 9–4; he made a ball every time he broke.

                                    Matchroom are also uploading one full match from table 1 at the end of each day; today's is between Joshua Filler and his wife, Pia Filler. I'm only a rack and a half into it so far, but I suspect I know how it's going to go, especially given the video's only 53 minutes long. Pia's obviously no slouch (she's the reigning women's European 8-ball champion), and from what I've read she's having the best season of her career at the moment, but she's nowhere near Joshua's level.

                                    Comment


                                      #68
                                      On Sunday Albin Ouschan won the inaugural European Open, beating Shane Van Boening 13–11 in what was by all accounts a magnificent final (I caught the last two and a half racks of it, and those were very good entertainment all on their own). Earlier in the day Ouschan had beaten his good friend Mario He, who was making his first appearance in the semis of a Matchroom event, and SVB got past Spaniard José Alberto Delgado, who I've not seen before (though I've heard his name mentioned once or twice). Oddly, Matchroom's site has Joshua Filler leapfrogging Ouschan into second in the 2023 rolling rankings after this event, which seems wrong given Filler went out in the quarters and Ouschan won the thing. I suspect the table there might not have been updated since Filler's UK Open win, hence the movements shown, although the commentators did mention Ouschan would go third in the ranking with a win. Bit confusing. He, of course, has jumped ten places and is now fifth – could we see two Austrians on the Mosconi Cup team for Europe?

                                      And not that our American readers should feel too gloomy about the Mosconi Cup, but it's now less than four months away and the rolling rankings are topped by Van Boening but you then have to scroll down to Kuwait's Abdullah Alyouseff in 9th before you reach another non-European. And there are no other Americans in the top 32. If the Mosconi Cup teams were picked right now the European team would be Filler (ranked 2), Ouschan (3), Francisco Sánchez Ruíz (4) and two wildcards – Jayson Shaw (7) is surely nailed on to feature and I'd guess Wiktor Zielinski (10) would get the nod over Oliver Szolnoki (8) – while the US team would be SVB (1), Oscar Dominguez (35), Skyler Woodward (45) and for wildcards I'd think Billy Thorpe's (62) friendship and good doubles partnership with Woodward would get him a nod, meaning the other spot is a toss-up between Tyler Styer (67) and Shane Wolford (52). I'd give it to Wolford, who's made some noise in what was meant to be his breakout year.

                                      The American outlook might be looking very different after the next Nineball tour event, though, because that's the US Open in a couple of months' time!

                                      And in more mundane news I've actually played 8-ball against opponents a couple of times recently. On Saturday I was practising and a tourist wandered in hoping to get a game. Very nice Austrian guy with an Argentine girlfriend. We played a few racks and I won them all – he clearly knew how to play, but was handicapped by the fact I knew the table better than he did (and had been practising on that exact table for about two and a half hours before he walked in). Today I went down to practise again and all the tables were taken, but on the same one I played on on Saturday was one of my old mates from my local, who offered to play against me. We played a race to five and he beat me 5–2, but I was pretty happy with some of what I did and absolutely delighted with one length-of-the-table draw shot which I a) nailed into the pocket without the ball touching the sides and b) actually hit so well the cue ball did indeed draw back, even though it had to travel around nine feet before it hit the object ball. My aim and (often) speed control still isn't where I want it to be but my ability to put the cue through the cue ball dead straight seems to have taken a big jump in the last few sessions, and it was nice to actually play a couple of matches for a change. It's totally bizarre as well to now be playing on these tables, which a year ago seemed such a huge challenge, and to be getting down on shots thinking 'I should make this'.

                                      Comment


                                        #69
                                        OK, when I said the next 9-ball event was the US Open, I was going off what Matchroom's own coverage of the European Open final told us, in my defence. The Asian 9-Ball Open is currently being played in Singapore, it's a Nineball ranking event and it's being streamed live on Matchroom.Live and Matchroom Pool's YouTube channel (and I assume their Facebook page) with commentary from Karl Boyes and an American whose voice I don't recognise. Right now we're into the round of 32, which is the first round of single elimination, and Carlo Biado v Luong Duc Thien is 3–3.

                                        I'd missed the announcement that this event was confirmed, probably because I've been so busy for the last three months that I've been paying less attention to the Matchroom site, but it's great that it is. More Asian players getting to win money (in Nineball-recognised events) means the world rankings will look a bit more like a real reflection of things come the end of the year. I presume the streaming deal is quite last minute, as until now the only events Matchroom have streamed have been the ones they themselves are running, and this isn't one of those – the Nineball logo is on the stream but it's not being run as a Matchroom event. The most discombobulating thing for me is that the table they're playing on is the same as the ones I practise on in my local pool hall, made by (I think) an Indian company who put them together for the few years that the World Championship was played in Qatar. It's hard to tell for sure but I think they're playing on 4.25-inch pockets rather than the 4.5-inch ones I practise on, though.

                                        Meanwhile there's a Predator women's 10-ball event going on in Canada, which is also being streamed on YouTube.
                                        Last edited by Sam; 26-08-2022, 06:33.

                                        Comment


                                          #70
                                          Originally posted by Sam View Post
                                          Right now we're into the round of 32, which is the first round of single elimination, and Carlo Biado v Luong Duc Thien is 3–3.
                                          And Luong Doc Thien takes it 11–10. Brilliant match.

                                          Comment


                                            #71
                                            Let this thread die a bit because I wanted to actually watch the Asian Open final without knowing who'd win, and getting the time to watch it took forever. But Ko Pin-Yi beat James Aranas 13–11 in the final. The other big tournament result since has been Aloysius Yapp winning his second consecutive Michigan Open 10-ball title, beating Robbie Capito in two sets in the final.

                                            The Philippines won the Predator World Teams Championship (10-ball), beating Great Britain in the final. I've not seen any of this yet (a lot of it is on YouTube), but teams all seem to have consisted of two men and one woman, with (from what I can gather) everyone playing some role in every match.

                                            But the reason I've resurrected the thread is that the big one's just around the corner: it's time for Carlo Biado to take to the Atlantic City baize to defend his US Open 9-ball title! The tournament runs from Monday to Saturday, and I believe it'll see the return to the 9-ball circuit of Fedor Gorst, who's been out of top-level action for most of the year due to being Russian but played in the Michigan Open (along with compatriot and girlfriend Kristina Tkach and Belarusian Margaret Fefilova), so I presume the WPA have lifted the restriction on them taking part. In spite of having been out of official competitions all this time Gorst actually leads the AZ Billiards prize money table for the year so far – and by an absolute mile at that – having been playing in money matches and non-WPA events in the States frequently. He also recently beat Biado in a 9-ball money match with the 9 on the spot in a race to 120 racks, so expect fireworks from him.

                                            Comment


                                              #72
                                              Personal pool update: I've had a couple of practice sessions in a row now where I've spent over an hour playing nothing but straight-in shots and aiming to both pot the object ball without touching the jaws and also stop the cue ball absolutely dead, with no roll or spin (that's not the whole session: today I was practising for about three hours in total before playing a couple of matches). Predictably, it gets you into a very concentrated mindset, but the thing that's really surprised me is that it also seems to be improving my judgement of cut shots. I also played two matches to five racks, one against a stranger who came up and asked if I fancied it (I won 5–4) and one against the same mate from my local mentioned a couple of posts above (lost 5–2, again, but was happier with how I played). The most pleasing thing is that I've realised that at some point in the last week or so I've got the point where there are now some shots I don't need to aim by walking round behind them, but can just see the angle. Speed control is also improving a little, I think. I'm hoping to be able to practise once more before Friday, which is when (all being well) I'll have my first two-hour class with an actual coach, because the woman I contacted earlier in the year about classes is finally back!

                                              I also watched a video from Karl Boyes last night in which he interviewed Ko Pin-Yi about what he keeps in his kit bag. One revelation was that he puts his own tips on, which is something I don't think any other top-level pros do (Karl was astonished). So that's something I've got in common with one of the world's top players. I think even I might get someone else to put my tip on if I had as expensive a cue as Ko does, though ... his sells for US$30,000, so it's about ninety times the price of mine.
                                              Last edited by Sam; 09-10-2022, 06:43.

                                              Comment


                                                #73
                                                Last sixteen on Friday, on Sky Sports for those of you in the UK, after a thrilling couple of rounds of single-elimination action on Thursday. It's been arguably the biggest day of Tyler Styer's career: the American first dumped Fedor Gorst out 9–7 and then, in the last finish of the day, gave Joshua Filler a real scare, eventually going down to him 9–6. Defending champ Carlo Biado is still in the mix, having beaten Naoyuki Oi 9–6 in a last thirty-two rematch of last year's semifinal, but 2021 runner-up Aloysius Yapp went out 9–1 to Sanjin Pehlivanovic in the last sixty-four.

                                                Biado is joined by two other Filipinos – Lee Van Corteza and Roland Garcia – while Alex Kazakis flies the flag for Greece having beaten world champion Shane Van Boening 9–8 in the last sixty-four and Tomasz Kaplan 9–5 in the last thirty-two. There are no Americans left: as well as Styer, Oscar Dominguez and Gregory Hogue both went out in the last thirty-two, while Joven Bustamante, Chris Reinhold, Shane Wolford and Skyler Woodward had all exited at the same stage as Van Boening earlier in the day.

                                                Those exits mean that Dominguez and Woodward join SVB in the USA's team for the Mosconi Cup based on world rankings at the end of this tournament, with captain Jeremy Jones allowed two wildcard picks (announced next week). Styer would have had to reach the semis to overtake Woodward in the rankings, but after the guts he showed today I'd be surprised if he doesn't get one of those picks.

                                                Various Europeans are left in, but we do know that Francisco Sánchez Ruíz will earn enough from this to solidify his ranking spot and allow him to play in his first Mosconi Cup alongside Filler (who was already locked in after the European Open). He could also go to world no. 1 by winning the tournament. For the other Europeans the race for the last Mosconi place is much tighter than it was for the Americans, but from what I could piece together based on what the commentators were saying during today's games, if Mario He (who would also become world no. 1 if he wins the whole thing) reaches the final he'll be guaranteed the third ranking spot, and any other European needs to win the trophy to have that guarantee.

                                                It'll all look a lot clearer after Friday, which is when the last sixteen and the quarterfinals will be played.

                                                Last sixteen breakdown by nationality:
                                                3 Taiwanese (Ko Ping Chung; Hsieh Chia Chen; Chang Jung-Lin)
                                                3 Filipino (Carlo Biado; Roland Garcia; Lee Van Corteza)
                                                2 Austrian (Mario He; Max Lechner)
                                                1 Finn (Jani Uski)
                                                1 Albanian (Eklent Kaçi)
                                                1 German (Joshua Filler)
                                                1 Pole (Konrad Juszczyszyn)
                                                1 Spaniard (Francisco Sánchez Ruíz)
                                                1 Netherlander (Marc Bijsterbosch)
                                                1 Greek (Alexandros Kazakis)
                                                1 Brit (Chris Melling)

                                                There are two previous winners still in: Biado and Filler, who've won it once each and happen to be the two most recent winners. Kaçi and Corteza have been runners up once each (Kaçi lost to Jayson Shaw in the 2017 final; Corteza to SVB in 2013).

                                                The last sixteen matches are as follows, with the winner of match 1 playing the winner of match 2 in the quarters, the winner of match 3 playing the winner of match 4 and so on:

                                                1. Chris Melling v Lee Van Corteza
                                                2. Max Lechner v Roland Garcia
                                                3. Ko Ping Chung v Jani Uski
                                                4. Eklent Kaçi v Joshua Filler
                                                5. Hsieh Chia Chen v Mario He
                                                6. Carlo Biado v Konrad Juszczyszyn
                                                7. Francisco Sánchez Ruíz v Chang Jung-Lin
                                                8. Marc Bijsterbosch v Alex Kazakis

                                                I'll probably miss the quarters, as they'll coincide more or less exactly with my first ever pool lesson. The last sixteen and the quarterfinals are races to 10; on Saturday (in case I forget to post) the semis will be races to 11 and the final will be a race to 13.

                                                Comment


                                                  #74
                                                  Oh, I should have stuck my neck out, shouldn't I, now that my favourite Gorst is out. I reckon FSR and (much as I hate to say it) Filler are the two favourites now, but Biado has gone about his defence in typically unfussy fashion and the wildcard now is FSR's opponent Chang Jung-Lin, who was awesome in the last sixty-four: he shared the first four racks with Jayson Shaw, then Shaw fell victim to a kick that threw the 2 he was trying to pot off line in the fifth rack and that was the last shot he took all match, pretty much: Chang won seven in a row to run out 9–2 winner. He's one of those names who almost never gets mentioned among the favourites for an event but almost always ends up right at the business end of them. Him against FSR should be a fantastic match.

                                                  Comment


                                                    #75
                                                    Four remain in Atlantic City! There were two crushing results in the round of sixteen, as Chris Melling was sensational in beating Lee Van Corteza 10–2 and Eklent Kaçi was his imperious best in beating Joshua Filler 10–1. The other games were much more even, and when the dust settled we were left with Melling v Lechner, Ko v Kaçi, Hsieh v Biado and Sánchez Ruíz v Kazakis in the quarters. Max Lechner overcame his quarterfinal hoodoo by beating Melling 10–4, and will play Ko in the first semifinal, after the Taiwanese came out on the right side of a 10–8 result against Kaçi that, although there were only two racks in it by the end, was never in serious doubt. Sánchez Ruíz v Kazakis was rather more of a thrillier but finished with the same score, the Spaniard coming out on top to keep alive his hopes of crowning what's already the best year in his career by a distance with a huge trophy. Standing in his way in semifinal 2 is Biado, who's aiming to become just the fifth person to successfully defend the US Open title, and rolled into the semis by beating Hsieh 10–0 without even breaking sweat. He even went for an audacious billiard attempt on the 9 in the penultimate rack that was just one more roll of the ball away from coming off. Semifinal action starts at 10am EST on Saturday.

                                                    And in more mundane news I finally had my first lesson this afternoon. I loved it. Best thing I've done without leaving the city all year. All sorts of details and feedback just as I'd hoped, and made me wish I could get straight back on the table for a few hours to practise things tomorrow (I could, but that would mean missing the US Open final, so I'll go on Monday instead).
                                                    Last edited by Sam; 15-10-2022, 07:17.

                                                    Comment

                                                    Working...
                                                    X