Eklent Kaci (Photo courtesy Austin Cofrancesco – Sharkstream)
At first glance, the 55-entrant field at the $10,000-added, 2025 McDermott Open was the kind of star-studded gathering that made you wonder about the competitors who weren’t there. Like the current top five in our 2025 AZBilliards Money Leaderboard, for example; Joshua Filler, Fedor Gorst, Shane Van Boening, Denis Grabe and Billy Thorpe. A second glance revealed a lot of names normally seen only intermittently at this level of competition. Not that the names that jumped out at you were virtual ‘nobodys.’ It’s just that many of them, over the years, have made their most significant overall contributions (and earnings) competing regionally (many, specifically on the East Coast) with occasional forays into the upper levels of national and sometimes, international competition.
This year’s McDermott Open was a World Nineball Tour (WNT) ranking event at which players accumulate points, leading to a possible selection for either the European or US Mosconi Cup teams, which will meet at the end of this year. The McDermott Open followed, by a week, the Seattle Nineball Open (March 28-30) and will be followed by The Diamond Open Nineball Professional Players Championship at the Super Billiards Expo outside of Philadelphia this week (April 10-13), both WNT ranking events. So as not to ‘bury the lead’ (as we say in the biz), Albania’s Eklent Kaci went undefeated at this year’s McDermott Open, which was hosted by Yale Billiards in Wallingford, CT. Kaci won two matches in the original Stage 1, double-elimination portion of the event and went on to win four more in the single-elimination, 16-entrant Stage 2. In the finals, he defeated the person referred to in the digitalpool bracket as ‘F.S.R,’ short perhaps for Fairly Solid Run, although, in fact, it was Spain’s Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz. We will get to their ’paths’ to the final shortly.
Among the 16 competitors at the McDermott Open who cashed in the event were four of the aforementioned competitors whose presence was something of a mild surprise, though certainly not anything resembling a shock. Finishing in the tie for third with the certainly familiar Jason Shaw was Brandon Shuff. In the four-way tie for fifth place was Lukas Fracasso-Verner, who would qualify as a ‘borderline’ surprise, given that he’s been making appearances at this level for quite some time now. In the eight-way tie for 9th place, having lost their first match in the single-elimination Phase 2, were Hunter Lombardo and Joe Dupuis. All have been consistently active on a portion of the East Coast, stretching from Massachusetts (Dupuis) to Florida (Lombardo).
Dupuis, in particular, would qualify as something of a ‘poster child’ for the resilience of long-time pool veterans, whose careers have risen, fallen, sometimes disappeared for varied stretches of time and yet continue to step up and surprise people who’ve been competing at high levels for nowhere nearly as long as he’s been around.
On his 41st birthday, in March, 2016, Dupuis, from Brockton, MA, was inducted into the New England Pool and Billiard Hall of Fame. When he accepted the microphone to speak from a former inductee, Tom McGonagle, he opened with a remark that could arguably be construed as a signpost, representing every medium-level competitor who, in spite of extenuating circumstances that pull them away and then push them back into a career at the tables, manages to remain relevant in the large tapestry of professional competition.
“As always,” he said, stepping up to the podium and prefacing further remarks, “I’m unprepared.”
He went on to talk about his career at length, detailing specifics about Turning Stone appearances, including one (XXI; the 4th Annual New England Hall of Fame banquet and tournament) at which Earl Strickland had to bear down and defeat him, double hill, in a loss-side match. In 2013, he was the first-ever competitor to become the American Rotation National Champion. The following year, he was second to Mike Dechaine at the 2014 American Rotation National Championships, but in the 5th Annual New England Hall of Fame get-together, double-dipped Dechaine in the finals. So, quite a few steps above ‘wanna be’ and still in there, duking it out with the best, which could be said of all of the mentioned ‘surprises.’
As for the more expected combatants and their progress through the field, Kaci and F.S.R. advanced to the Stage 2, single-elimination bracket from the winners’ side of Stage 1’s double-elimination bracket. Kaci opened with a bye before defeating Jacob Book 9-3 and Brandon Shuff 9-6 to qualify for Stage 2. Ralf Souquet also advanced in the same mini, 16-entrant bracket of the full-field 64-entrant bracket. ‘The Kaiser’ opened with a bye, as well, and met up with Joe Dupuis, who’d opened with a shutout over Cheryl Williamson. Souquet sent Dupuis to the loss side, and defeated Georgi Georgiev 9-6.
F.S.R.’s trip to Stage 2 (with bye) went through Payne McBride 9-4 and Sam Henderson 9-3 to qualify. Fracasso-Verner, in the same ‘mini 16’ bracket, downed Brent Worth 9-3, Alex Bausch 9-2 and John Morra 9-5 to advance.
Also advancing from the winners’ side of the Stage 1 proceedings were Indonesia’s Edward Koyongian and Lithuania’s Pijus Labutis, along with the aforementioned Hunter Lombardo and Eklent Kaci’s younger brother, Kledio Kaci.
On the loss side, all but one of the eight competitors who advanced to Stage 2 did so by winning a single match on the loss side; Francesco Candela (over Dave Garvish 9-4), David Alcaide (over Mhet Vergara 9-3), Jonas Souto (over Andri Januarta 9-3), Jayson Shaw (over Jeremy Sossei 9-7), Georgi Georgiev (over Alex Bausch 9-2), Brandon Shuff (over Payne McBride 9-2) and Sam Henderson (over Nathan Childress 9-5).
Joe Dupuis was the only ‘holdout,’ in a manner of speaking. He followed his loss to ‘The Kaiser’ with three in a row to qualify for Stage 2, downing Steve Sutton 9-7, Lance Lisciotti 9-4 and with advancement on the line, defeated John Morra 9-7.
As expected, Stage 2 matches tighten up, as Kaci and F.S.R. work their way to the finals
Five of the eight matches in the opening round of Stage 2’s single-elimination bracket ended up with its winners prevailing 11-8. One went double-hill (Shaw over Koyongian), another went 11-7 (Shuff over Lombardo) and Kledio Kaci eliminated Joe Dupuis 11-1. Perhaps in solidarity with his fellow East Coast regional competitor, Brandon Shuff avenged Dupuis’ elimination by advancing to battle and defeat Kledio Kaci, double hill, in one of the quarterfinals.
Also advancing to the quarterfinals and winning through to the semifinals was Eklent Kaci, who would defeat Francisco Candela 11-3 and in the semifinals, meet Shaw, who’d eliminated Pijus Labutis 11-7. F.S.R. got by Fracasso-Verner 11-7, and in his semifinal, met Shuff, once he’d completed his double-hill number on Kledio Kaci.
Kaci downed Shaw 11-9, as F.S.R. was busy eliminating Shuff 11-7. In a race to 13, Eklent Kaci claimed the 2025 McDermott Open 13-7.
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