The final six competitors, led by the Derby City Classic’s Master of the Table Joshua Filler, were confirmed on Saturday evening as four players were eliminated from Premier League Pool, held at US 1 Billiards, West Haven, Connecticut, live on Matchroom.live, DAZN in the United States and networks around the world.
Joshua Filler, Ko Pin Yi, Shane Van Boening, Ko Ping Chung, Francisco Sanchez Ruiz and Fedor Gorst will return to action on Monday in a battle to make the evening’s four-man Race to 7 play-offs. Wiktor Zielinski, Skyler Woodward, Mario He and Albin Ouschan were eliminated on Sunday and will exit the competition.
Filler won six of his nine matches against the top 10, a record bettered only by the Ko Brothers and World No.1 Francisco Sanchez Ruiz over the weekend. World Pool Master Ko Ping Chung is level with Filler at the top of the table on 17 wins from 24 matches, with 2018 World Pool Champion Filler ahead of the Chinese Taipei star by virtue of Racks Difference.
The duo are supported by five-time US Open winner Shane Van Boening and reigning US Open champion Ko Ping Chung on 16 points in 3rd and 4th respectively. Van Boening headed into the weekend in red-hot form, dropping just two matches across the opening five days of play. However the South Dakota Kid’s advantage would take a huge dent as he slipped to one win in seven – falling to Filler and Ko Ping Chung among six defeats from his nine matches.
Ping Chung holds the same record as older brother Pin Yi, with seven wins from nine matches. Losing to Skyler Woodward in their final Stage 2 match on Table 1 – live on Matchroom.live – he would also lose out to Pin Yi in a reverse of the Stage 1 result between the brothers, levelling the match record at one each across the week.
Defending champion Francisco Sanchez Ruiz confirmed his spot in the final six with two matches to spare. The Spaniard will begin Monday’s play in 5th place after recovering from 9th place to just two points behind the leaders, crucially running up his Rack Difference metric in the process.
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The battle for 6th place went down to the wire, with Woodward, Fedor Gorst and Wiktor Zielinski all in contention for a spot in Stage 3’s action.
Zielinski was in pole position heading into the weekend, carrying a dangerous string of form throughout the week after lifting the McDermott Classic World Nineball Tour Ranking Event last Sunday in Boston, Massachusetts. Despite taking a 10-5 record into the round, just two wins across the two days, fatefully losing to both competing men alongside him, would see him slip out of contention.
The final spot was decided between countrymen Gorst and Woodward, who successfully claimed a point together at last December’s Mosconi Cup for Team USA.
Gorst would get the advantage of a 5-2 win over Woodward early on Sunday, keeping a point’s gap between the pairing. Despite a loss to Ko Pin Yi, wins over Albin Ouschan and Shane Van Boening would be enough to seal the final spot in the group.
Ouschan would be sent home alongside Austrian partner Mario He in 10th and 9th respectively, with Zielinski in 8th and Woodward finishing 7th for the second consecutive year.
Premier League Pool returns for the final day of action on Monday, 25 March from 11am EST. Each of the final six will play each other in a Race to 5, setting up a final four play-off in Race to 7 action. Two semi-finals will determine the final, with the winner set to take home $20,000.
You can keep track of all the scores and live table via WNT Live Scoring here. Sign up for a free account to receive access to the 2024 Mosconi Cup priority ticket window.