Joshua Filler has been crowned the 2023 Qatar Open 9-Ball Championship winner following a 13-9 victory over Ko Ping-Chung in Sunday’s final in the Qatari capital of Doha.
Filler followed his maiden success at last month’s China Open Championship by snapping off the lucrative Qatar Open, with the WPA-sanctioned tournament being held for the first time in more than a decade.
Both finalists saw themselves appear on a digital Qatari skyscraper on the eve of the final but it was Filler who put together six break and runs to reign victorious and seal the $50,000 top prize.
Filler needed to overturn a 3-1 deficit following back-to-back break and runs from the newly-crowned US Open champion, before the esteemed pair were eventually locked at nine apiece after numerous safety exchanges.
An unsuccessful hook from Ko following another intense safety battle allowed Filler to run out and take a slender 10-9 lead, only for successive break and runs as well as ball in hand to see Filler home.
Beforehand, the German came through a hill-hill affair against Poland’s Wiktor Zielinski and beat Alexander Kazakis in the quarter-finals. He then scuppered the exceptional run of Polish teenager Szymon Kural, who enjoyed one of the greatest weeks of his young career.
Filler was suffering with illness during the double elimination phase and therefore needed to come through the one-loss side following a defeat in his second match against Turkey’s Sami Koylu.
Ko, meanwhile, continued his sensational form and was rampant throughout, fending off John Morra in the semi-finals, having defeated Bader Al-Awadhi 11-1 in the quarter-finals and Marc Bijsterbosch.
In addition, Ko defeated World Snooker Tour ranking event winner Michael Georgiou, while his older brother endured a deciding rack defeat against Filipino Israel Rota in the first round of single elimination.
Qatari World Cup of Pool star Ali Al-Obaidli was the last-standing player from the host nation until he was defeated 11-10 by Albin Ouschan, who subsequently suffered an emphatic 11-3 loss at the hands of Kazakis.
