Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz (ESP), Jayson Shaw (SCO) and Eklent Kaci (ALB) are among the last 4 players standing at the 2017 US Open in Norfolk, Virginia.
Friday was a good day for European but a tough day for German pool. The only two Europeans who got ousted in the US Open were Joshua Filler (GER) and Thorsten Hohmann (GER). The first victim of the day was Joshua Filler. He was up against one of the last two remaining US players, Corey Deuel (USA) on the Accu-Stats TV arena table. The match started out quite bad for Joshua. Deuel got an early advantage and went on the hill, taking a 10:6 lead over Filler. Then he broke dry and Filler managed to break and run 3 consecutive racks under enormous pressure. However, when Filler broke in rack 20, trailing 9:10 to Deuel only, he remained dry off his break and presented Deuel an easy run-out. The US player accepted the gift and eliminated Filler after an overall amazing performance here in Norfolk. Filler has to settle for 9th place which is a good accomplishment. Together with Filler, former World Champion Thorsten Hohmann had to strike his sails in the same round. His destiny was „The Bull“ Jeffrey de Luna (PHI). Hohmann lost that match in the early stage. He committed some unforced errors like leaving the 8-ball hanging over the pocket in rack 1. These mistakes followed him through the match. Though he was able to keep the match open and even took a 6:5 lead over de Luna at one time, the Filipino stayed strong and ousted Hohmann with 11:6.
Left to right: Kaci, Shaw and Sanchez-Ruiz
However, that concludes the bad news for the day. On the winner’s side, Jayson Shaw took down Ko Ping Chung (TPE) in an intense battle 11:8. The other semi-final match on the winner’s side was the encounter between Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz and Eklent Kaci. This time, Sanchez had the better day and handed an 11:5 defeat to his Albanian opponent. Kaci was sent to the loser’s side where he took down Naoyuki Oi (JPN), the „crazy Japanese“ with 11:8 and stayed in the tournament.
The final match on the winner’s side will be played on Saturday, October 28th at 13:00 EDT between Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz and Jayson Shaw. At the same time, Eklent Kaci will face Chang Jun Lin (TPE) on the loser’s side. After these two matches, the winner from the loser’s side will encounter the loser of the winner’s side at 15:00 EDT. At 19:00 EDT, the final match is scheduled.
Results from Friday, October 27th
Loser’s round 10 (loser tied for 9th)
Joshua Filler (GER) v Corey Deuel (USA) 9:11
Dang Jinhu (CHN) v Naoyuki Oi (JPN) 8:11
Chang Jun Lin (TPE) v Billy Thorpe (USA) 11:3
Thorsten Hohmann (GER) v Jeffrey de Luna (PHI) 6:11
Winner’s round 6
Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz (ESP) v Eklent Kaci (ALB) 11:5
Jayson Shaw (SCO) v Ko Ping Chung (TPE) 11:8
Loser’s round 11 (loser tied for 7th)
Corey Deuel (USA) v Naoyuki Oi (JPN) 9:11
Chang Jun Lin (TPE) v Jeffrey de Luna (PHI) 11:10
Loser’s round 12 (loser tied for 5th)
Eklent Kaci (ALB) v Naoyuki Oi (JPN) 11:8
Chang Jun Lin (TPE) v Ko Png Chung (TPE) 11:9
The EPBF will follow the path of the European players and keep you updated on the EPBF Facebook page with results, statements, interviews, pictures and more. Check out our page if you want to be part of the action. For watching the event LIVE on the internet, you can get pay-per-view access at http://www.accu-stats.com/