Joshua Filler successfully defended his China Open 9-Ball Championship accolade in Shanghai, while Han Yu retained the women’s title to lift the trophy for the fourth time in eight years.
Filler defeated surprise package Hayato Hijikata from Japan 11-6 in the final to win his third career China Open title, winning five racks in succession to scoop the $40,000 top prize.
Hijikata battled back from 3-1 behind to restore parity at six apiece, although a relatively routine missed three ball at 8-6 down proved particularly costly as Filler breezed towards the trophy.
Filler had beaten China’s Xue Zhenqi 9-7 and Dennis Orcollo 9-8 in the early rounds, with Orcollo notably leaving the nine ball hanging over the pocket in the deciding rack of their epic encounter.
Those proved to be Filler’s toughest tests on his path to success nonetheless, with comfortable wins over Sergey Lutsker and Yang Zhe following prior to 11-7 and 11-5 wins over Poland’s Mieszko Fortunski and Konrad Juszczyszyn.
Hijikata, meanwhile, endured a deciding rack defeat at the hands of Oliver Szolnoki in his opening match, but survived the group stage with 9-8 wins over Mohamed El Mola and Kuo Hsuan-Wei.
His landmark campaign also saw him overcome the likes of Wu Kun-Lin, Hsu Jui-An and his former World Cup of Pool teammate Naoyuki Oi, but Hijikata’s hopes of becoming the first-ever Japanese winner of the event were ultimately scuppered.
Afterwards, Han established herself as the most decorated female player in the China Open’s history, battling her way through a 9-8 thriller against Chinese compatriot Wang Xiaotong for the $36,000 cheque.
Wang had beaten Seo Seoa, Chen Siming and women’s world number one Chou Chieh-Yu during the biggest week of her career, although an excruciating missed six ball for a 7-4 lead in the final proved somewhat decisive.
Han thrashed newly-crowned women’s world champion Rubilen Amit 9-3 in the semi-finals and also clocked wins over the likes of Wang Wan-Ling and Wei Tzu-Chien as she became a four-time China Open champion.
