Niels Feijen has stunned both Fedor Gorst and Joshua Filler on his way to the International Open semi-finals at the Renaissance Resort in St Augustine, Florida during a tremendous campaign.
Feijen, who was crowned world champion a decade ago, defeated two of the sport’s most relentless talents to accompany defending champion Aloysius Yapp, Germany’s Moritz Neuhausen and Lithuania’s Pijus Labutis in the final four.
The Dutchman had beaten Jayson Shaw, Mario He and Marco Teutscher to enter the last 16 undefeated, before constructing a 9-4 lead over Gorst. However, the world number one claimed four successive racks to reduce the arrears, only for Feijen to break and run in the alternate break format to prevail.
Feijen needed to showcase his endurance on Thursday afternoon as another closely-contested battle followed. Filler held leads of 7-4 and 8-5, although Feijen turned the match on its head and progressed with the help of a costly missed nine ball from the German in the seventeenth rack.
Filler had himself emerged through a gripping last 16 encounter against Austria’s Max Lechner, needing to win five of the last six racks from 8-5 down to reach the quarter-finals.
Feijen will face the task of dethroning last year’s champion Yapp in the semi-finals, with the Singaporean having beaten Kledio Kaci, Georgi Georgiev, Wiktor Zielinski, Sanjin Pehlivanovic and Corey Deuel to continue his terrific record at the tournament.
Meanwhile, Labutis and Neuhausen will encounter one another in the other semi-final, with both emerging stars eyeing the largest paydays of their careers and the $40,000 champion’s cheque.
Labutis endured defeat at the hands of Carlo Biado in the double elimination phase but survived three matches on the one-loss side, before overcoming Francisco Sanchez Ruiz and Zielinski to reach the final four.
Neuhausen was also beaten on his way to qualifying for the last 16 but the young German followed his 10-7 loss to Filler with a 10-8 win over Billy Thorpe, before Alex Kazakis in a hill-hill epic and Carlo Biado to reach the semi-finals.
