Joshua Filler
Once upon a time (last week; Sept. 4-8) in a country (Qatar) far, far away. . .
Germany’s Joshua Filler won an international pool tournament – The 2023 Qatar Open 9-Ball Championships. To put it in a geographic, size and distance perspective, the country of Qatar is a relatively rectangular Middle East peninsula, surrounded on three sides by the Persian Gulf and adjacent only to Saudi Arabia at its southern border. It is roughly the size of Connecticut, about 100 miles long and 50 miles wide at its widest point. Its capital, Doha, where the event was held, is located on its eastern coast, a little further north than midway up the peninsula. It is 7,460 southwest miles away from Kansas City, and on (roughly) the same latitude as the tip of Florida and somewhere in southern Mexico. So, hot a lot of the time, although that is balanced by more than 350 miles of coastline. Its land border with Saudi Arabia is only 37 miles long. Temperatures during the week in Doha never dipped below 100° (F). Except for Wednesday (as a comparison), they didn’t in Phoenix, AZ either.
The week and event began with four groups of competitors looking to qualify for the Main Event. Of the 483 that began, only 16 (four from each group) emerged to join the 112 already-qualified competitors, pre-qualified through a number of world-wide pool associations. The Main Event, with its 128 entrants, began with a double-elimination bracket, out of which emerged 64 competitors who proceeded with a single-elimination bracket. Joshua Filler and Tapei’s Ko Ping Chung (who would finish as runner-up) began their march to the finals in the double-elimination phase of the Main Event.
The double-elimination bracket was broken up into 16 groups of 8, each group advancing four of its competitors (two from each side of the bracket) to the single-elimination rounds. Filler (Group 16) opened up with a 9-3 win over Lebanon’s Osama Ali and then, no doubt much to his initial dismay, he ran into Turkey’s Sami Koylu. The first four games of that match were something of a ‘Filler sandwich,’ with Koylu playing the bread (winning the 1st and 4th game) and Filler winning the middle two as the meat. Filler took the 5th game, but Koylu responded with four straight to go up 6-3. Filler won the 10th game, but Koylu won the three after it and advanced to single-elimination from the winners’ side of the group. They would not meet again. It would prove to be Filler’s only loss, while Koylu lost his opening-round match of single elimination to Poland’s Dominik Jastrząb (1-9).
Filler moved to the loss side of Group 16 for a single match. He defeated Lebanon’s Mohammad Berjaoui 9-6 and joined the Philippines’ Leonardo Hipolito in advancing from the loss side of Group 16 to single-elimination play.
Ko Ping Chung, in the meantime (Group 4) defeated Kuwait’s Abdullah Alqatan 9-2 and (unaffiliated) Arseni Kovalerchik 9-6. Ko Ping Chung joined Poland’s Mateusz Śniegocki in advancing from the winners’ side of Group 4.
Among the other competitors who advanced to the Main Event’s final 64 from the winners’ side of the double-elimination bracket were (among many others) Poland’s Wiktor Zielinski, Canada’s Alex Pagulayan, Germany’s Thorsten Hohmann, Finland’s Mika Immonen, Canada’s John Morra, Austria’s Albin Ouschan, Estonia’s Denis Grabe, Philippine’s Carlo Biado, and Greece’s Alex Kazakis. From the loss side of the double-elimination bracket (besides Filler and of course, among many others) came Hong Kong’s Robbie Capito, USA’s Tyler Styer and Hunter Lombardo, Poland’s Mieszko Fortunski and Hungary’s Oliver Szolnoki.
Filler started his eight-match, single-elimination run to the winners’ circle against fellow countryman and Hall of Famer, Thorsten Hohmann. After defeating him 9-3, Filler moved on to down Filipino Mark Kalagayan 11-8 and in his one and only, double-hill challenge, Wiktor Zielinski. In the quarterfinals, Filler would face Alex Kazakis.
Ko Ping Chung began his single-elimination march to the finals against Saudi Arabia’s Rogelio Sotero. He followed a 9-7 victory over him by defeating Cyprus’ Michael Georgio 11-7 and the Netherlands’ Marc Bijsterbosch 11-4 to draw Kuwait’s Bader Alawadhi in a second quarterfinal.
Denis Grabe emerged from the group to face Poland’s Szymon Kural in a third quarterfinal. John Morra and Carlo Biado met in the fourth one.
Filler got by Kazakis 11-7 and in the semifinals, drew Kural, who’d defeated Grabe, double hill. Ko Ping Chung made something of a statement in his victory over Alawadhi, getting out in front by nine racks before Alawadhi chalked up one; his last, as it turned out. Ko Ping Chunk took the final two and in the other semifinal, drew Morra, who’d ousted Biado 11-5.
Filler defeated Kural 11-4 as Ko Ping Chung eliminated Morra 11-7. The extended race-to-13 final was on. It was the tightest match that one could hope for, at least as a spectator. In the early stages of the match, they engaged in mini-runs of three (Chung) and two (Filler) racks. In the middle stages, they kept trading the lead back and forth, keeping the spectator-pleasing hope of a double-hill, final game very much alive.
The six-game run to a 3-3 tie was more of a Ko Ping Chung sandwich; Filler winning the bread matches (1st, 5th & 6th; extra bread?) and Chung, winning the middle three. They did it again, through to the 10th game; Chung, winning the 7th and 10th racks, Filler. . . filling in the 8th and 9th. It was tied at 5-5.
The back-and-forth, short-runs pattern to a tie would not hold. At the end of the 15th rack, Ko 8-7. Filler fought back to tie it 8 and winner another to make it 9-8.
At ’17 down’ and potentially, ‘8 to go,’ Chung took the next rack to tie it up once again. At this point, they’d been ‘even’ seven times and the longest run of racks had been Ko Ping Chung’s, right after Filler had won the opener. Ko Ping Chung had taken a single-or-more rack lead six more times than Filler (11-5). The seventh tie, though, proved to be Chung’s last, as Filler sprinted to the finish line with four straight racks to claim the 2023 Qatar Open 9-Ball Championships.
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