Mario He
Wins quarterfinal vs. The Iceman, advancing to semifinals
As this report was being prepared, Austria’s Mario He, defeated the “Iceman” Mika Immonen 150-105 in one of the International Straight Pool Open’s quarterfinals. As the defending champion of the Open title, he will play either Max Eberle or Thorsten Hohmann in one of the event semifinals, scheduled for 3 p.m. today. Mario He’s countryman, Max Lechner, downed Lee Vann Corteza in one of the other quarterfinals 150-103 and will play either Denis Grabe or Jan Van Lierop in the other semifinal.
The 42 original entrants in the International Straight Pool Open (formerly Peter Burrow’s American 14.1 Straight Pool Championship) began their quest for the 2024 title on Saturday (Nov. 23). Six competitors in seven groups (‘flights’) began that quest with a round robin phase, setting out in races to 150 (one point per ball) to play five games against the opponents in their flight, which took until last night (Mon., Nov. 25) to complete. When those 210 matches (six competitors x five matches per flight x seven flights) were done, an analysis of win/loss records for each of the flights advanced two competitors with the best records to a 16-player bracket. Two ‘wild card’ selections (the best two, based on a comparison of point-differentials between a player and his five opponents in the round robin phase) were added to the 14 who advanced automatically. That group, now racing to 150, began their final push of seven matches, beginning with four of them which started at noon, leading to a final, scheduled for this evening (Tues.) at 7 p.m.
It’s impractical to start reporting on the 30 matches in each flight to track the progress of each of the two competitors (and possibly a ‘wild card’) that would end up comprising the Final 16. It is, though, significant to note which of the Final 16 made it to that point without losing a match in the round robin phase. There could only be one undefeated competitor in each group.
There were five altogether, representing four different countries; the Philippines’ Lee Van Corteza, The Netherland’s Neils Feijen and Jan Van Lierop, Estonia’s Denis Grabe and Canada’s John Morra. Of those five, it was Vann Corteza who advanced with the highest point differential between his combined, five-match, round robin score and that of his opponents (625-115). The next highest differential, by 114 points (balls), belonged to Morra.
The next group to advance (five down, 11 to go) were the winners of four of their round robin matches; Carlo Biado, Pijus Labutis, Max Eberle, Albin Ouschan, Shane Van Boening, Wiktor Zielinski, Max Lechner, Thorsten Hohmann, and Mika Immonen. The two remaining players who advanced as ‘wild cards’ finished their round robin phases with 3-2 scores; Anthony Meglino and Mario He.
By late last night (Monday), those 16 had been reduced to eight, whose matches began at noon today, with the “Iceman” (Mika Immonen) squared off against Mario He in the Aramith Simonis TV Arena (as noted above, He has won that match). Scheduled on tables just outside the Arena were Lee Vann Corteza against Max Lechner, Jan Van Leirop facing Denis Grabe and “The Hitman” (Thorsten Hohmann) battling Max Eberle. Highlights of that opening round included matches that eliminated Shane Van Boening (versus The “Iceman” 150-113), Anthony Meglino (by Corteza 150-92), John Morra (by Max Eberle 150-13) and Albin Ouschan (by “The Hitman” 150-10).
The four quarterfinal matches will be followed by the two semifinals, scheduled at 3 p.m., with one of them (as yet to be determined) to be featured in the TV Arena. The finals of the 2024 International Straight Pool Open is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the Arena. Depending on when you’re reading this, you can catch what actions remain be linking to the PayPerView option, available through the International Open Web site https://www.intlopen.com/ or through AccuStats directly at https://www.accu-stats.com/.
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