Joshua Filler (Photo courtesy Knight Shot)
Gorst, in first outing after winning 2nd World Pool title, ousted by Hong Kong’s Robbie Capito
As we began looking into the inaugural Knight Shot Open, the most recent event on the Mosconi-Cup-points-gathering World Nineball Tour Calendar, held in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates last week (June 12-15), we got a preliminary look into the Knight Shot Company itself, which organized the event. We learned that it’s the most specialized game tables and sports company in the Middle East, boasting 35 years of brand experience, producing products related to pool and snooker tables, darts, table tennis, air hockey and foosball tables, kids play areas and both indoor and outdoor sports equipment. Merrily we read along and discovered that the event was hosted by Jayson Shaw’s Billiards Lounge in Dubai. . .
Wait. What? Jayson Shaw owns a pool room in Dubai? While it’s clear that while he can delegate responsibility for its day-to-day operations, it’s hard to imagine how he manages to fit in whatever ownership responsibilities that crop up in a pool room. Given his reported penchant for being hands-on at the grill in his Connecticut pool room (US 1 Billiards & Bar in West Haven), we spent some time thinking about what sort of new food groups that he might be cooking in Dubai and what kind of frequent flyer miles he must be chalking up to get there, even if it’s just ‘once in a while.’
And then we moved right on to the event itself.
The 64-entrant field contained many of the top competitors on the current WNT Rankings list. In fact, all but four of the final 16 were among that list’s top 35, commencing with Fedor Gorst (#1) and through (with gaps) to #25, Hong Kong’s Robbie Capito, who eliminated Gorst from the tournament on the loss side during the original, double-elimination phase of the event. Germany’s Joshua Filler (#8) went undefeated to claim the event title, downing Albania’s Eklent Kaci (#3), who battled Gorst in the thriller finals of the World Championships. You can watch selected matches of this event on Knight Shot’s YouTube channel, during which you’ll discover that certain camera shots from one long rail to the other, contain an enormous poster of the owner. At least some of the matches are edited for time, removing segments from the completion of one shot to shooting the next and on occasion skipping a few shots altogether. Makes for shorter viewing times, though there have been mixed reactions to that idea.
Competitors had three shots from the winners’ side of the double-elimination bracket to advance to single elimination. Those sent to the loss side had an additional one to four chances to be among the Final 16 from the loss side.
Filler’s winners’ side path went through United Arab Emirates’ Salah Farough (9-2), USA’s Billy Thorpe (double hill), and Austria’s Max Lechner to join the Final 16. Albania’s Eklent Kaci got by United Arab Emirates Nasser Saleh (9-4) and Greece’s Antonis Kakaris, before he ran into Jonas Souto, who sent him to the loss side 9-7. Kaci played and won a single match on the loss side, downing Serbia’s Aleksa Pecelj 9-4 to join the final 16. Joining Filler on the winners’ side final eight were Bosnia-Herzogovina’s Sanjin Pehlivanovic, Denmark’s Mickey Krause, Lithuania’s Pijus Labutis, Spain’s David Alcaide Bermudez, the Philippines Johann Chua and Jayson Shaw.
Half of the eight players, advancing from the loss side to the Final 16 played only one loss-side match. Ralf Souquet, who’d lost to Mickey Krause in the last, winners’ side qualifying round defeated Oscar Dominguez 9-2 to join the final 16. Mieszko Fortunski, defeated by Alcaide came over and defeated Alex Kazakis in a double-hill match to qualify. We mentioned Eklent Kaci and his loss-side victory over Pecelj, but his brother, Kledio, came back from a loss, as well, downing Syria’s Mohammad Soufi 9-4. The other four loss-side qualifiers were Canadian John Morra, who won three on the loss side, winning a double-hill match versus the Philippines’ Elijah Noli Alvarez and eliminating Thorsten Hohmann 9-6 and Wiktor Zielinski 9-4.
United Kingdom’s Elliott Sanderson won two on the loss side, including a double-hill match against USA’s Tyler Styer and the qualifying match against Mario He 9-6. Shane Van Boening won three on the loss side, including a 9-6 win over the German ‘young gun,’ Moritz Neuhausen and a 9-7 win over Max Lechner. Robbie Capito played three on the loss side, finishing with the not-insubstantial feat of eliminating Fedor Gorst 9-2 and Carlo Biado 9-5.
After the opening round of single-elimination, eight competitors remained, not including (in any particular order) Shane Van Boening, who’d lost, double hill, to Pehlivanovic and Kledio Kaci, who’d not get the chance to compete against his brother after putting up a double-hill fight, but falling to Jayson Shaw. Robbie Capito, who’d ended Gorst’s run, fell to the winner, Josh Filler. And Ralf Souquet was defeated by Jonas Souto.
In the quarterfinals, Souto eliminated Pehlivanovic 10-8, Eklent Kaci dispatched Morra 10-4, Filler sent Shaw to his kitchen (maybe) 10-8, and Johann Chua dispensed with Ralf Souquet 10-2. In the semifinals, Eklent Kaci downed Mickey Krause 11-5 and advanced to the finals, while Filler got way out in front of Chua and defeated him 11-3 to join Kaci.
The finals almost went double-hill, which from a spectator point of view is a difference of about 10 (usually exciting) minutes, if that. Filler completed his undefeated run with a 13-11 victory.
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