WITH THE 2015 PartyPoker World Pool Masters set for the iconic Victoria Warehouse from 14th to 16th August, the draw has been made and schedule set for what promises to be an unforgettable weekend of world-class pool.
Featuring 16 players from 14 nations, the field is headed up by defending champion and No.1 seed Shane Van Boening (USA) who gets his defence underway against the dangerous Canadian John Morra.
The second match on the Friday evening features 2013 champion Niels Feijen against the No.1 player on the South American rankings following their continental championships next month. The final Friday night match sees Mosconi Cup hero Karl Boyes face China’s World No. 6 Liu Haitao.
All seedings are based on the players’ current WPA World Rankings and the eighth seed, Waleed Majid of Qatar starts the Saturday afternoon session with a potential humdinger against Scotland’s Jayson Shaw, who makes his first UK appearance in the Masters.
No.2 seed Ko Pin-Yi (Taiwan) will be hoping to repeat the form that took him to the World 10 Ball title earlier this year. He faces a tough proposition against Englishmen Daryl Peach or Mark Gray who play off for the Masters spot on July 18th.
The last match of the afternoon sees World No.4 Darren Appleton face a tough game against European No.9 Mateusz Sniegocki (Poland), a former Masters finalist himself.
The final two first round matches play out on the Saturday night with two-time Mosconi Cup winner Nikos Ekonomopoulos (Greece) taking on five-time Masters winner, ‘The Kaiser’ Ralf Souquet of Germany.
Finally, the No.6 six seed, rising Filipino star Johann Chua faces Australia’s James Georgiadis, who came so close to upsetting Van Boening at last year’s Masters.
The quarter-finals commence on the Saturday evening before playing out on Sunday afternoon, while the semi-finals and the championship match complete on Sunday evening.
The Draw
(1) Shane Van Boening (USA) v John Morra (CAN)
(8) Waleed Majid (QAT) v Jayson Shaw (SCO)
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(5) Liu Haitao (CHN) Karl Boyes (ENG)
(4) Niels Feijen (HOL) v South America No.1
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(3) Darren Appleton (ENG) v Mateusz Sniegocki (POL)
(6) Johann Chua (Philippines) v James Georgiadis (AUS)
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(7) Nikos Ekonomopoulos (GRE) v Ralf Souquet (GER)
(2) Ko Pin Yi (TPE) v Daryl Peach or Mark Gray (England)
The Schedule
Friday 14th August 7.00pm
R1 – Van Boening (USA) v Morra (CAN)
R1 – Feijen (HOL) v TBC South America
R1 – Liu (CHN) v Boyes (ENG)
Saturday 15th August 1.00pm
R1 – Majid (QAT) v Shaw (SCO)
R1 – Ko (TPE) v Peach / Gray (ENG)
R1 – Appleton (ENG) v Sniegocki (POL)
Saturday 15th August 6.00pm
R1 – Ekonomopoulos (GRE) v Souquet (GER)
R1 – Chua (PHI) v Georgiadis (AUS)
QF – Feijen/S America TBC v Liu/ Boyes
Sunday 16th August 1.00pm
QF – Van Boening/Morra v Majid/Shaw
QF – Chua/Georgiadis v Appleton/Sniegocki
QF – Ekonomopoulos/Souquet v Ko/Peach/Gray
Sunday 16th August 6.00pm
Semi-Final 1
Semi Final 2
The Final
Tickets are priced at £5 for Friday evening and Saturday andSunday afternoon, and £10 for the Saturday and Sunday evening sessions. To catch all the 9 ball action there is a great value season ticket taking in all sessions for just £30.
http://www.seetickets.com/
The Masters will once again sport a $20,000 top prize, and the event will be produced by Matchroom Sport Television who will be making 15 x 1 hour programmes of the tournament for international syndication.
The 2015 PARTYPOKER World Pool Masters is sponsored by PartyPoker, the world's leading online poker site. Cloth is supplied by Iwan Simonis and the Official Balls are Super Aramith. Diamond is the supplier of the Official Table.
