Aloysius Yapp
In semifinals, Neuhausen/Labutis will meet at 3:30 p.m., Feijen/Yapp at 6 p.m. today (Friday)
After the four days of double-elimination play that started with 128 entrants in the International 9-Ball Open, the first day of single-elimination (Thurs., Nov. 21) went from 16 players down to four in a proverbial heartbeat. And the opening round of play in that single-elimination phase featured some hard-fought battles; six of the eight matches finished with scores of either 10-8 (4) or a double-hill score of 10-9 (2).
Starting with the two that did not end that way, Lithuania’s Pijus Labutis defeated Spain’s Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz 10-7, while the Philippines’ Carlo Biado defeated USA’s Tyler Styer 10-4; something of a surprise, given that Styer had qualified for single elimination the night before by eliminating Jayson Shaw 10-8 in the last, loss-side qualifying round.
The two matches that went double-hill in the opening round pitted Joshua Filler against Max Lechner and Moritz Neuhausen versus Alex Kazakis. Filler and Neuhausen advanced from opposite ends of the bracket
In the ’10-8’ department, Sanchez-Ruiz’ countryman, David Alcaide, was eliminated by Poland’s Wiktor Zielinski, Bulgaria’s Georgi Georgiev downed the Philippines’ Lee Vann Corteza, Austria’s Mario He knocked out the last remaining Kaci brother (Kledio) and Neils Feijen defeated Fedor Gorst in a thriller match. Feijen and Gorst had met in the semifinals of last August’s US Open in Atlantic City, but Gorst defeated Feijen there, 11-6. Not this time, though. Feijen’s advance to the quarterfinals set him up against Joshua Filler, who, at that same US Open, had been defeated by Shane Van Boening in the other semifinal. Gorst would go on to defeat Van Boening in Atlantic City 13-6.
On to the quarterfinals, which proved, on the whole, to be slightly less ‘taut’ than its opening-round predecessors. Pijus Labutis and Wiktor Zielinski, for example, won their opening rounds 10-7 and 10-8, respectively. Against each other in the quarterfinals, Labutis downed Zielinski 10-3. Moritz Neuhausen joined Labutis in advancing (against each other) to the semifinals with a 10-5 win over Carlo Biado.
Aloysius Yapp knocked out Bulgaria’s Georgi Georgiev 10-6 in the last match of the day in the Simonis Aramith TV Arena. Meanwhile, at the same time, on a table that flanked the arena, Filler and Feijen set up to do battle in a highly compelling match. Without the seating capacity of the Arena, the match had spectators standing on all four sides of the table, jockeying for position to stay in eye contact with the action. It may be hard to assess a given match as ‘best’ of the tournament, simply because one can’t see all of them, but visually, the Filler/Feijen match ended up drawing what appeared to be far more standing-room-only people than any other match that was fought outside of the ‘feature match’ Arena.
Niels Feijen
The ’Terminator’ does a ‘come back’ scene for mostly standing spectators
They do not call BCA Hall of Famer Niels Feijen “The Terminator” for nothing. He is statuesque in a metallic kind of way; tall, broad-shouldered and firm from head to toe. He approaches his shots and takes them in a very crisp, business-like, almost mechanical way. This, as compared to the much-younger Joshua Filler’s more casual and loose-limbed style in which he performs the same tasks. So, ‘crisp’ and ‘casual’ went at it, battling for advancement to the semifinals.
Feijen opened the proceedings with a three-pack, to which Filler responded with two. Feijen chalked up rack #6, at which point, the match took a significant turn. Filler won the next five games to take what, in anything but the most professional events, would be called, in a race to 10, a ‘commanding’ lead at 7-4.
They traded racks, leaving Filler in the lead at 8-5, at which point the match took another significant turn. One could almost ‘hear’ the original Terminator’s voice as Feijen stepped away from the table after losing rack #13 – “Ah’ll be back.” As any good professional will tell you, games and matches are won ball by ball and game by game. Without any serious lapses in the ‘unforced error’ department for either of them, Feijen went to work.
With each game, as Feijen won, the tension was mounting, with the applause after a rack growing louder; 8-5 became 8-6, became 8-7 and then, tied. Feijen answered the ‘five pack’ Filler had chalked up against him in the early going with a match-ending ‘five pack’ of his own. When it was done, the mechanical ‘Terminator’ in him melted away, as he acknowledged the support and applause for his effort, with a clearly human smile.
Final three matches of International 9-Ball Open will play out in Simonis Aramith Arena
So, the stage was set for today’s semifinal action, which, just for the record, will be without any of the competitors who’ll be in Orlando next week to play in the Mosconi Cup. The semifinals will lead to the crowning of a champion somewhere in the vicinity of 10 p.m. Moritz Neuhausen and Pijus Labutis will square off in one of the semifinals at 3 p.m. in the Simonis Aramith Arena. At 6:30 p.m., the International 9-Ball Open’s defending champion, Aloysius Yapp will take on The Terminator, Niels Feijen, who finished in the tie for 17th place at the 2023 event. Given Feijen’s route through the field, which has included back-to-back victories over (in order) Jayson Shaw, Fedor Gorst and Joshua Filler, this semifinal is likely to attract a full-house of spectators to see whether The Terminator can employ his precision skills to “come back” again.
The championship match is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. and presumably will host another packed house. All matches can be watched via live-stream, which can be accessed by going to the International Open Web site and linking to the Pay-Per-View options available there.
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