Ko Pin-Yi brought to a halt Jayson Shaw’s title defence at the Hanoi Open Pool Championship in Vietnam and will be amongst an all-Asian semi-finals, days before the anticipated Reyes Cup.
Former world champion Ko will be accompanied by Reyes Cup teammates Johann Chua and Carlo Biado in the semi-finals, having overturned 5-1 and 9-6 deficits against world number three Shaw to come through a hill-hill thriller.
Shaw produced numerous highlight reel shots during the early exchanges, executing a three-nine jump shot with deep draw as well as a one-rail, table-length one-nine combo, as he opened up a 4-0 lead.
Errors began to creep into Shaw’s game nonetheless, notably missing an eight ball in the tenth rack in crucial fashion, and Ko battled back to 6-6. He then claimed three racks in succession to reach the hill, before prevailing following a missed one ball from Shaw.
Ko will encounter Jefrey Roda in Sunday’s semi-finals, with the technically-acclaimed Roda backing up his US Open quarter-final with another spirited campaign. Roda battled back from behind to end the dream run of qualifier Harry Vergara in the quarter-finals.
Biado, meanwhile, staged an exceptional comeback from 7-2 down to beat 2023 semi-finalist Ko Ping-Chung, before emphatically seeing off Francisco Sanchez Ruiz in the quarter-finals.
The legendary Filipino followed Ko’s four break and runs with four of his own as he mounted an incredible resurgence, and Biado rallied from five apiece to defeat Sanchez Ruiz in a 10-5 win.
Chua followed his World Championship and US Open semi-finals with another appearance at the business end, overcoming Jeffrey Ignacio in a nervy contest prior to a 10-6 win over Albanian teenager Kledio Kaci.
