Four players remain in the reckoning for glory at the European Open Pool Championship in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, as three attempt to land their maiden major accolade on the World Nineball Tour.
A new name will be etched onto the prestigious European Open trophy come Sunday evening and someone will follow in the footsteps of Albin Ouschan, David Alcaide and Mickey Krause, securing the $40,000 top prize in the process.
Daniel Maciol, conquerer of two world champions this week, takes on Japan’s Naoyuki Oi, while Joshua Filler and Pijus Labutis renew rivalries in a repeat of last year’s Derby City Classic nineball final.
DANIEL MACIOL VS NAOYUKI OI
There’s one guarantee as Daniel Maciol and Naoyuki Oi lock horns and that’s that whoever prevails will find themselves in a maiden major final. Japan’s Oi has been in US Open Championship and World Pool Championship semi-finals previously, while Poland’s Maciol enters uncharted territory.
Maciol did win the lucrative Qatar World 10-Ball Cup in December, earning himself $100,000, although you could argue that becoming the European Open champion would hold more prestige as a World Nineball Tour major.
Having been denied in a hill-hill quarter-final against Skyler Woodward last time around, Maciol is in the semi-finals of a WNT open championship for the first time, having taken out two of the game’s heavyweights en route to the final day.
Maciol battled back from four racks behind against Shane van Boening in the last 32, producing a six-rack surge to complete the comeback, before dominating Ko Pin-Yi and then denying giant-killer Tobias Bongers in the quarter-finals.
Two-time World 10-Ball Championship runner-up Oi, meanwhile, will be attempting to land the biggest accolade of his career in Bosnia and Herzegovina. First and foremost though, he will be vying to exact revenge for a 9-6 winners’ qualification defeat against Maciol earlier this week.
Oi breezed into the quarter-finals with comfortable wins over Jonas Souto Comino, Emil-Andre Gangflot and Max Lechner, prior to a more arduous 10-7 victory over Lo Ho-Sum. His skillset often finds him in the latter stages of events, but could now be the time that the sun rises for the Japanese sensation?
Maciol and Oi are relatively closely-matched players on paper, and their deciding rack affair in last year’s World Championship in Saudi Arabia proves that, although the Pole has the edge based on performances this week in the Bosnian capital.
Prediction: 11-7 Maciol
JOSHUA FILLER VS PIJUS LABUTIS
Both Joshua Filler and Pijus Labutis would’ve had a good night’s sleep, some breakfast and a few racks on the practice table before their European Open semi-final, unlike their Derby City Classic final thriller last January, which concluded at 11.15am and marked the end of a 24-hour marathon final day.
Filler narrowly defeated Labutis in a hill-hill affair on that occasion, the Lithuanian has since gained revenge in Louisville, although now another opportunity awaits for both – a chance to win the biggest accolade of his career in the Lithuanian’s case.
Having been denied in Spanish Open and UK Open semi-finals, the former being a deciding rack defeat, Labutis, the world number 16, will be hoping that it’s third time lucky. He’s been within spitting distance of major titles but ultimately been unable to make that quantum leap.
Labutis will be fully aware of the challenge that lies in front of him in the former world champion. Filler has been phenomenal throughout the tournament, winning 57 racks to the loss of only ten on his way to the quarter-finals, before three break and runs helped him past Wojciech Szewczyk.
Filler has become embroiled in the Matchroom and WPA fiasco, notably being removed from the Mosconi and Reyes Cups and not being selected for the upcoming Premier League Pool, although the showman is doing his talking on the table this week and proving a point to a considerable degree.
Labutis, meanwhile, has overcome two Asian Reyes Cup stars in Aloysius Yapp and Duong Quoc Hoang, the latter being a match he was rather fortunate in. The 27-year-old has also beaten the likes of Luong Duc Thien, Kostas Koukiadakis and Edward Koyongian during an undefeated week.
Lithuania’s Labutis will want to surpass the semi-finals before it becomes too much of a hoodoo, although Filler has been irresistible throughout the duration and could win his first WNT major title in three years.
Prediction: 11-8 Filler
