Karl Boyes has taken the Scottish Open by storm this week at the McGoldrick’s Sports Bar in Glasgow, Scotland and the ex-professional turned pundit now stands within one victory of the last 16.
Boyes, who is allegedly retired from professional tournaments, compiled five break and runs in an eye-opening 10-4 victory over two-time world champion Albin Ouschan, having already showed tremendous composure to defeat Spain’s Jonas Souto Comino in his opening match.
Souto Comino hooked himself whilst on the hill, with Boyes subsequently grasping an unexpected opportunity with both hands and executing three clutch shots followed by a break and run to emerge a 10-9 winner.
The former World Pool Championship semi-finalist will encounter Aloysius Yapp in the winners qualification round on Saturday afternoon for a place in the single elimination phase, with Singapore’s Yapp having beaten JJ Faul and come through a hill-hill affair against John Morra.
Elsewhere, Albanian brothers Eklent and Kledio Kaci both advanced through to winners qualification. UK Open winner Eklent barely broke sweat in two straightforward matches, while teenager Kledio impressed in notable wins over Mario He and Marc Bijsterbosch.
Defending champion Jayson Shaw endured a surprise defeat in the opening match of his title defence at the hands of Taiwan’s Liu Ri-Teng, who broke and ran on four occasions, but Shaw bounced back with relatively comfortable wins over Estonia’s Sander Kont and Finland’s Jani Uski.
US Open champions Ko Ping-Chung and Carlo Biado are similarly battling their way through the one-loss section following losses against Thorsten Hohman and Georgi Georgiev respectively.
Newly-crowned World Pool Masters champion Fedor Gorst was forced to work for his place in the winners qualification round by Turkey’s Mustafa Alnar, eventually prevailing a 10-8 victor, while Francisco Sanchez Ruiz, Joshua Filler and Shane van Boening also remain unbeaten and have done without too much difficulty.
New Zealand’s Sullivan Clark is perhaps the most unheralded protagonist in winners qualification but the Kiwi cueist has beaten Max Lechner and Carlo Biado’s conquerer Georgi Georgiev during an exceptional campaign.
Nevertheless, Hanoi Open semi-finalist Sanjin Pehlivanovic has statistically been the most relentless in the tournament so far, following his eight break and runs in his opening match with five break and runs in denying Scotland’s Dawud Qadir, who had beaten Niels Feijen in round one.
The Scottish Open last 16 will be confirmed on Saturday evening, with Ko Pin-Yi taking on Filler, Van Boening facing Eklent Kaci and Sanchez Ruiz meeting Pehlivanovic in the stand-out winners qualification ties.
