18 year old High School Student Eklent Kaci Shocks The Pool World By Winning The Aramith Masters At The World Pool Series In New York City.
By Ted Lerner/WPS Media Officer
Photos By JP Parmentier/WPS
(New York City)–Playing with an almost surreal poise and skill that belies his obvious youth, 18 year old Albanian Eklent Kaci captured the Aramith Masters Championship on Saturday in New York City with a two sets to nil win over the Philippines Carlo Biado, and at the same time laid claim to being the most promising young rising star in pool’s professional ranks.
The tall and good looking Albanian, who this week was on his third pool playing trip to the United States in the last 8 months, and who regularly plays on the Euro Tour, captured the $12,000 first prize in this the second event of Darren Appleton’s new 8-ball tour, the World Pool Series.
But much more than the money and even the title, Kaci showcased the kind of uncanny skill and psychological maturity reserved for players with years more experience. His ability to keep total control of the cue ball, keep the game simple, suck up the intense pressure as if it simply didn’t exist, and hone in on the finish line like a fine tuned laser was simply breathtaking. This young man, who is still in high school back in his native Albania, has the goods and then some.
Those that know Kaci from his recent forays on the Euro Tour and his few stints in the States all knew he was a talented player. But of course nobody figured that the 18 year old was ready to win a tournament that was loaded with some of the world’s best pool talent and seen by several million people on Facebook Live through social media giant Unilad. The calm and collected Kaci, though, clearly had other ideas.
The young Albanian started the day a heavy underdog in his semi-final match with the man nearly everyone considers the best player on the planet right now, Jayson Shaw. The Scotsman, however, was the one who played with his back against the wall, while Kaci was in total control throughout and never got rattled. While Shaw struggled to get comfortable, Kaci kept cool and won the first set, 6-4. Shaw was more competitive in the second set and the pair played a one rack decider. But the Albanian showed more bottle and persevered to win the second, 7-6, to advance to a suprise final.
There he met up with the Philippines Carlo Biado, who had played solid in his semi-final match against England’s Darren Appleton, the man who founded the World Pool Series. The 35 year old Filipino was the steadier of the two, winning the first set 6-3, then the second set 7-5 to advance to the final with a 2 sets to nil victory.
Biado has been one of the world’s top players for the last four years and has come tantalizingly close to big victories including several world titles but never cashed in. During the interview prior to the start of the match Biado seemed intent on righting that wrong in his resume. In the first set, however, Kaci proved to be the more resilient as he raced out to a 4-1 lead in the first set and held off the Filipino at every turn. The Albanian stayed steady and focused, and never trailed capturing set one, 6-4.
Kaci kept up his solid and focused play in the second set. He hardly made mistakes, and kept amazing control of the cue ball in taking a 3-2 lead. Biado caught him and took his first lead of the match at 4-3, but Kaci never waivered and soon was back up at 5-4. Biado had more fire in this set and tied it again. But the Albanian pounced on several errors by the Filipino, kept his game simple and precise, shrugged off any pressure as if it was a mere nuisance, and took the last three racks for an emphatic 7-5 set win, and an unlikely title.
Cheered heartily by the packed crowd at Steinway Billiards in Queens, Kaci, who has been playing pool since he was 8 years old, clearly reveled in his amazing feat. But in similar fashion to the way he played throughout the week, he had a calmness and surety that seemed to say that he knew he was destined for this very success for many years.
“The first set I played really good, I didn’t make any mistake,” Kaci said. “The second set I made a couple of mistakes but in the end I won, so that’s OK. I feel really good about myself. I just won the biggest tournament of my life and I beat the top players in the world and I’m very happy about that.
“Everybody feels the pressure, but the good thing about me is that I know how to control the pressure. When I was in the final, I already felt that I had done well, so no matter what happened in the final, I would be happy. Of course, in the final I really wanted to win.
“You know I started playing pool when I was 8 years old. When I’m 10 and 11 years old I started playing pool 8 to 10 hours a day, spending my whole day in the pool hall. I wasn’t like other kids who are just drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes. When you work hard, you can get what you want and can win what you want.
“When I was young, 11 and 12 years old, I watched all the great players on Youtube and wanted to be like them. I really admired Wu Chia Ching when he won the world championship when he was just 16 years old. He’s a legend. I always wanted to be like him. I know this isn’t a world championship, but it feels like it right now. All the toughest players were here. So I’m very happy about that. I always dreamed about winning something big, but so soon like this? I’m very surprised myself.
For winning the Aramith Masters Kaci received $12,000.
*In the second chance Kamui Challenge tournament, the Philippines Lee Vann Corteza defeated Mika Immonen by shootout to take the $3000 first prize.
*The second event of the World Pool Series, The Aramith Masters, was held at Steinway Billiards in Astoria, Queens, New York City from April 5-8, 2017. The World Pool Series is sponsored by Aramith, Molinari, Predator, Cheqio, RYO Rack, Iwan Simonis, Kamui, Billiards Digest, Cuescore, Ultimate Team Gear, and High Rock Productions.
For more information please visit the official website of the World Pool Series at http://www.worldpoolseries.com/
The World Pool Series is on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/worldpoolseries/
FINAL
Klenti Kaci(ALB) 2 – 0 Carlo Biado(PHL)
SEMI-FINALS
Carlo Biado(PHL) 2- 0 Darren Appleton(GBR)
Klenti Kaci(ALB) 2 – 0 Jayson Shaw(GBR)
18歲高中生閃耀紐約 爆冷奪冠
2017世界花式撞球系列賽第二站——雅樂美大師賽於美國紐約皇後區的Steinway Café-Billiards落下帷幕，來自阿爾巴尼亞的18歲在校高中生Klenti Kaci憑借出色的控球能力和強大的心理素質，連克包括Jayson Shaw和Carlo Biado在內的一眾頂尖球員，驚艷斬獲生涯首個世界大賽冠軍。Kaci在接受賽後采訪時表示他的偶像是“泰山神童”吳珈慶。
世界花式撞球系列賽是2017年新增的一項國際性美式8球賽事，，由英國名將Darren Appleton一手組織促成，WPA世界撞球協會根據積分排名決定出參賽球員資格和種子席位。系列賽共設四站，分別是1月的莫利納里球員錦標賽，4月的雅樂美大師賽，7月的RYO Rack經典賽以及9月的美洲豹世界系列錦標賽 (總決賽)，參加了前三站至少任意一站的球員才可以參加總決賽，不然需要繳納高額報名費，每站均將在美國紐約皇後區的Steinway Café-Billiards進行，總獎金約425,000美元。
首站比賽冠軍被俄羅斯新秀Ruslan Chinakov獲得，他在決賽中大勝菲律賓球王Lee Vann Corteza。本站賽事是系列賽第二站，儘管採用與首站全程單敗淘汰一樣的賽制，但從1/8決賽開始，比賽變為三盤兩勝，若前兩盤雙方戰平則將進行殘酷而又刺激的點球大戰 (5球)。
經過三天的激烈角逐，阿爾巴尼亞的18歲高中生Klenti Kaci以一匹大黑馬的姿態出現在了四強名單中，Kaci近幾年才開始參加歐巡賽，本次也僅僅是他第三次到美國比賽，知道他的人極少，儘管這些人認為凱西是一個很有天賦的球員，但誰也沒有覺得他已經有能力奪得世界大賽的冠軍。
半決賽上，Kaci向幾乎被所有人公認的當下地球最強球員、蘇格蘭的Jayson Shaw發起挑戰，結果他6-4贏得首盤，又在第二盤中7-6險勝，以2-0的總比分力挫Shaw殺入決賽，決賽中他面對的是菲律賓名將Carlo Biado，Biado在另一場半決賽中以相同的總比分擊敗了賽事的發起人、英國名將Darren Appleton，後者連續兩站止步四強。
決賽中，表現更為穩健的Kaci 6-4拿下首盤，又再接再厲7-5贏下第二盤，最終便以2-0的總比分擊敗Biado，一黑到底奪得生涯首個大型賽事冠軍，同時也收獲了12000美元的冠軍獎金，他的奪冠也標誌著世界花式撞壇從此又多了一顆冉冉升起的新星。
驚艷奪冠的Kaci開心地說：“我非常滿意自己的表現，我收獲了目前為止最大的一個比賽冠軍，能夠擊敗世界頂尖球員們我感到非常自豪”，“每個人都會感到壓力，但好在我知道怎樣去調控它們。當我站在決賽賽場的時候，我覺得我已經做得很好了，所以不管是怎樣的結果我都會高興”。
激動的他還補充說到：“我8歲開始打球，10歲起每天訓練8—10個小時，我不像別的孩子那樣泡吧、吸煙。十一、二歲的時候，我在YouTube上看了很多頂尖球員的比賽，我非常崇拜吳珈慶，他16歲的時候就成為了世界冠軍，他是個神話，我一直想和他一樣。我知道這次不是世界冠軍，但對我來說，它的意義和世界冠軍一樣，能拿到冠軍我也非常意外。”
此外，在稍早結束的只有輸掉大師賽的球員才能參加的卡姆挑戰賽中，Lee Vann Corteza在決賽以總比分2-1力克芬蘭“冰人” Mika Immonen，收獲了3000美元冠軍獎勵。
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