World Pool Championship: Kazakis, Ouschan Van Boening and Al-Youssef remain

Four players remain in the reckoning for glory at the 2022 World Pool Championship, with Ouschan two matches away from defending his title

Albin Ouschan is still on course to defend his World Pool Championship heading into Finals Day at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, with America’s Shane van Boening, Greece’s Alexander Kazakis and Kuwait’s Abdullah Al-Youssef all making it into the final four.

There were some stellar morning clashes in the last 16 as Joshua Filler got the better of Darren Appleton from 10-8 down to set up a repeat of the Premier League Pool final just a month ago, for a spot in the semi-finals against Ouschan. Ouschan, meanwhile, didn’t seem to have to break a sweat as he downed fellow two-time winner Thorsten Hohmann 11-5.

Al-Youssef pulled off an upset against the 2021 US Open runner-up Aloysius Yapp who did reach the hill first. Max Lechner stood between the Kuwaiti and the semi-finals and it didn’t come without drama. After only a few racks, it seemed the nine ball was rolling off. After much consultation between Lechner, Al-Youssef and the organisers, the decision was made the continue the match on another table.

When the match resumed, Lechner led at 9-8 and he looked to be reaching the hill first before failing to cut the nine ball in and in the process allowing Al-Youssef to pull it back to 9-9.

The Kuwaiti will be hoping to emulate compatriot Omar Al-Shaheen who reached last year’s final, and he will be hoping to keep luck on his side, the eventual winning rack saw Al-Youssef fluke the seven before cleaning up to deal a hammer blow to Lechner.

Derby City Classic semi-finalist Al-Youssef came into the tournament as the 50th seed and will face top seed Ouschan for his spot in the final.

Ouschan’s route to the final against Filler could’ve been much worse after finding himself down 4-0, but that is when the Austrian found his ‘Mean Machine’ nickname to keep Filler frozen out, much like in the Premier League final. The two-time champion seems to have Filler’s number of late and came out victorious in his typical calm demeanour.

Kazakis has plugged away all week the Greek put on a convincing display of how far his game has come to overcome Ronald Regli of Switzerland in the opener 11-4.

The 2021 World Pool Masters champion beat Van Boening 9-0 in the final last year and will face the five-time US Open winner for a maiden World Championship final after beating close friend Oliver Szolnoki in a hill-hill finish.

It was a contest of highs and lows for both players as it soon went 7-7, but it was Szolnoki who reached the hill first at 10-7. A golden break and combo later, Kazakis was back in the contest as he drew it back to pull off a memorable comeback and set up his showdown with Van Boening.

Van Boening had arguably two of the biggest matches in recent time of his career, with a repeat of the 2015 World Championship final against Ko Pin-Yi his first task and one that he duly rose to.

Ko was returning to the nineball fold for the first time since the pandemic, but Van Boening had two golden breaks along the road map to a 11-8 win and revenge for 2015. Chang Jung-Lin was next on the American’s agenda, having beaten Naoyuki Oi earlier on in the day.

The break was key to Van Boening’s day as he crunched countless balls in on the break to lead Jung-Lin 8-3. The pair have great mutual respect but, in truth, it was always Van Boening’s game to lose as he ran out a 11-8 win. Revenge on Kazakis is next for the USA man.