Wojciech Szewczyk has won the PRP Nineball Open in Zaragoza, Spain beating Aleksa Pecelj in the final 9-6 to claim a vital $12,000 World Nineball Tour ranking points and move inside the top 16 in the world as well as 5th in the Race to Mosconi Cup standings for Team Europe.
A 128-strong field where over 20 countries were represented descended on the Spanish city to do battle in a stacked field with the likes of WNT No.1 and Spaniard Francisco Sanchez Ruiz, World Pool Championship runner-up Mohammad Soufi of Syria, Khalid Alghamdi, Niels Feijen, and Alexander Kazakis amongst the much-fancied names battling it out for the top prize.
On Thursday, Pecelj battled through the Last 64 beating Greece’s Nikolaos Chatoupis before dismantling Great Britain’s Imran Majid 9-3 to reach the Last 16. The Serbian’s deepest run at a World Nineball Tour ranking event came at Matchroom UK’s Open last year prior to this where he reached the quarterfinals and he continued on his ascent in Spain with victories over Max Lechner and Denis Grabe in the Last 16 and quarter-finals respectively to make the last four.
The last remaining Spaniard Francisco Diaz stood in Pecelj‘s way of reaching the final, but he quickly found a groove late on Thursday evening to dispatch him 9-5 and set up a tantalising final with Szewczyk.
Szewczyk meanwhile defeated rising star of Estonia Karl Gnadeberg before overcoming Andrea Milioli of Italy in the Last 32 and an impressive 9-1 win against SVB Junior Open winner Alghamdi. Lithuania’s Pijus Labutis took Szewczyk to the hill in the quarters before Premier League Pool semi-finalist Sanjin Pehlivanovic was sent packing 9-6.
©Matchroom Multi Sport
Sanchez Ruiz‘s home hopes were dashed by the impressive Pehlivanovic in the quarterfinals whilst it was Diaz who ended Alcaide‘s hopes in the Last 64. Players travelled from far and wide to earn the vital World Nineball Ranking Points like the 2022 Mosconi Cup representative for the USA Oscar Dominguez, but his race was run by France’s Noel Bensaid. 2021 World Pool Masters champion Alexander Kazakis had his tournament ended by close friend Dimitris Loukatos in the Last 32.
Elsewhere, Bosnia Open winner Niels Feijen suffered at the hands of Alghamdi in the Last 32, and Austria’s Mario He fell at the same hurdle to Konrad Juszczyszyn of Poland.
When it came to the final, Pecelj overall did a lot of the running early doors, but it was Szewczyk who pulled through to seal victory having started the week on the losers side of the draw. He said: “At some point when I got close, I got lucky at times but later on, I watched how Aleksa struggled with his break and then I found mine. I had some faith right then. I played really bad in the first round, and I did have some luck since then but then I found my gear in the semi-final especially. There are more points to gather, I’d love to make the Mosconi Cup but for now I will enjoy this victory.
Coverage was enhanced this week with on-site support from the World Nineball Tour team with coverage provided through the Matchroom Pool social media channels as well as live stream coverage of the two semi-finals and the final on the Matchroom Pool YouTube channel which bolstered the PRP Nineball Open exposure globally with fans tuning in their thousands to sweat the action. Newly announced player ambassador Karl Boyes was also on-site in Spain speaking with World Nineball Tour players about their ideas for the future growth of the game for everyone.
NEXT WORLD NINEBALL TOUR RANKING EVENT
The World Nineball Tour continues at a pace with the Bob Stock Memorial 9-Ball Open next up this weekend (April 22-23) in Virginia, USA where the likes of Fedor Gorst, Skyler Woodward, and Billy Thorpe will all face off. See more on how to sweat the action from Virginia over the weekend here.
Wojciech Szewczyk｜©Taka G Wu/Matchroom Multi Sport
Szewczyk 贏下PRP 9號球公開賽冠軍!
暫居世界九號球排名首位的 Francisco Sanchez Ruiz、荷蘭終結者 Niels Feijen、2021年世界花式撞球大師賽冠軍 Alexander Kazakis (希臘)、2023年世界撞球錦標賽亞軍 Mohammad Soufi (敘利亞)、SVB 青少年公開賽冠軍 Khalid Alghamdi (沙烏地阿拉伯) 等在內來自 20多個國家/地區的128名選手齊聚西班牙第五大城市薩拉戈薩參加 2023 Mezz Cues PRP 9號球公開賽。
23歲來自塞爾維亞的 Aleksa Pecelj 此賽事前在世界九號球巡迴賽 (World Nineball Tour) 排名賽中最佳成績為 2022年英國公開賽打進八強。Pecelj 在64強單敗賽首場擊敗希臘選手 Nikolaos Chatoupis (9-7)，後以 9-3 大勝 Imran Majid (英國) 晉級16強，接著於 16強與八強中分別淘汰奧地利好手 Max Lechner (9-7) 與愛沙尼亞的 Denis Grabe (9-3)，最後在半決賽以 9-5 擊敗西班牙選手 Francisco Díaz 挺進決賽。
Aleksa Pecelj｜©Taka G Wu/Matchroom Multi Sport
另一方面，2022年男子10號球世界冠軍 Wojciech Szewczyk (波蘭) 於單敗淘汰賽頭兩場比賽分別取勝於愛沙尼亞後起之秀 Karl Gnadeberg (9-7) 與義大利的 Andrea Milioli (9-4)，並在 16強以 9-1 大勝了 SVB 青少年公開賽冠軍 Khalid Alghamdi，緊接著八強與半決賽中又分別以 9-8 力克 Pijus Labutis (立陶宛) 及 9-6 擊敗波黑年輕好手 Sanjin Pehlivanovic，與 Aleksa Pecelj 會師冠軍戰。
決賽開始後，前半段 Pecelj 一路保持著領先局面，更一度拉開至 4-1 的三局領先，然 Szewczyk 一路急起直追，最後不僅追平 (5-5) 甚至反超前，後半場的 Pecelj 無力反撲，最終 Szewczyk 擊敗對手拿下 2023 “Mezz Cues” PRP 9號球公開賽冠軍，也是首個世界九號球巡迴賽優勝並收穫一萬歐元獎金。
Szewczyk 賽後表示: “我在第一輪的表現非常糟糕，但後來某些時候運氣似乎站到了我身旁，特別是在半決賽中找回到了自己的狀態。未來還有許多比賽能夠攢下積分，我很希望進入莫斯考尼盃，但在那之前，我將先享受著這場勝利。”