Quarter Finals
Nikos Ekonomopoulos (GRE) 8-3 Alex Pagulayan (CAN)
Chris Melling (ENG) 8-6 Karl Boyes (ENG)
Shane Van Boening (USA) 8-4 Mark Gray (ENG)
WE’RE DOWN to the last four at the 2014 PartyPoker World Pool Masters as Nick Ekonomopoulos, Chris Melling and Shane Van Boening all enjoyed victories in their quarter-final matches at the Portland Centre, Nottingham. That leaves one Greek, one Pole, one American and one Englishmen to contest pool’s most prestigious invitational tournament as it concludes on Sunday evening.
Nikos Ekonomopoulos put paid Alex Pagulayan’s hopes with a solid performance in the first match of the afternoon. It was a bit of a scratch-fest as both players lost control of the white but the Greek player was solid throughout as he cruised to victory.
“At the start of the match I was a little bit unlucky, I scratched twice on the brake but after that I played near perfect and didn’t miss any balls.
“I am playing well at the moment. I came third in the US Open, I had a second on the Euro Tour and in two weeks it is the Mosconi Cup, which I am very excited for.”
In the battle of the Brits it was Chris Melling who prevailed over Karl Boyes in an error-strewn encounter. Neither player was at his best but it was Melling who dominated.
Commented Melling; “I thought I was the better player in that match. At 6-3, the three frames he had won were combinations on the nine; he was making mistakes when he had to run a rack. You have to take your chances and I took more than he did. That is why I won.”
Shane Van Boening’s match against Mark Gray looked plain sailing as he raced into an authoritative 6-0 lead. However the Englishman, who was still suffering the effects of a bug, found his feet and managed string three racks together before Van Boening closed out the match.
“I am happy with how I played; my break was awesome and I will keep breaking from the centre like that,” said Van Boening.
“I made balls on the break most times; the 1 ball seems to be going to the middle pocket when I break from the centre so I will stick with that. I am thinking about when I won the US Open a few weeks ago because I want to bring the same positive energy to this tournament.”
Play concludes on Sunday evening.
Sunday evening 18.00
Semi Final 1 – Karol Skowerski (POL) v Nikos Ekonomopoulos (GRE)
Semi Final 2 – Chris Melling (ENG) v Shane Van Boening (USA)
The Final
The Masters will once again sport a $20,000 top prize, and the event will be produced by Matchroom Sport Television who will be making 15 x 1 hour programmes of the tournament for international syndication.
