Mickey Krause was denied a guaranteed debut on the European team for the Mosconi Cup following a narrow defeat to eventual winner Francisco Sanchez Ruiz in the Peri Open semi-finals.
Krause relinquished a four-rack lead against the former world number one and was eventually beaten in a deciding rack, although the Dane remains in pole position for the final spot on the European team through the one-year rankings.
Having won the European Open Championship and Bucharest Open titles this year and already qualified for the inaugural Reyes Cup, Krause will earn a Mosconi Cup debut should Sanchez Ruiz, David Alcaide or Wiktor Zielinski not win the Hanoi Open.
Sanchez Ruiz moved into contention following his $25,000 success in Da Nang, Vietnam, but Krause remains roughly $22,000 ahead of him and is a sizeable favourite to join captain Jayson Shaw, Eklent Kaci and Joshua Filler on the European team.
Meanwhile, the American race also heads to Hanoi as Tyler Styer, Skyler Woodward, Oscar Dominguez and Billy Thorpe all endured early exits at the Peri Open, although Styer is highly likely to earn his fourth successive appearance on the US team.
Woodward and Dominguez would need to reach the Hanoi Open semi-finals and hope Styer suffers defeat before the last 32, while Thorpe, who won the recent Battle of the Bull to move into contention, would need to reach at least the final.
Woodward will captain the American team in December on home soil but could qualify automatically and therefore earn himself a second wildcard pick.
The Mosconi Cup race concludes following next week’s Hanoi Open Championship, held from October 3-8 in the Vietnamese capital, before Shaw and Woodward reveal their wildcard picks in the aftermath.
