Niels Feijen won the Professional Players Championship at the Super Billiards Expo at the weekend in Philadelphia, sealing his fourth World Nineball Tour ranking title with a 10-8 victory over Eklent Kaci.
Feijen fended off a four-rack comeback from the Albanian to pocket the $15,000 top prize, denying Kaci back-to-back WNT ranking titles following his success at the McDermott Open a week beforehand.
The Dutchman was 8-4 up and cruising to the title, only for a particular costly mistake to allow Kaci back into the contest. That frustrated Feijen but he managed to use that to his advantage and ultimately emerged victorious.
Feijen was beaten in the third round of double elimination against Ukraine’s Vitaliy Patsura, although he bounced back with three impressive wins over Billy Thorpe, Lo Ho-Sum and Skyler Woodward on the one-loss side.
He subsequently swept aside Sanjin Pehlivanovic in the last 16, before producing successive 10-7 wins over John Morra and David Alcaide in the quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively.
Kaci, meanwhile, pulled off a tense 10-9 victory over world number one Fedor Gorst in the semi-finals in a thrilling match which ebbed and flowed throughout, having also beaten fellow Premier League stars Francisco Sanchez Ruiz and Pijus Labutis.
Kaci’s younger brother Kledio defeated Morra, Skyler Woodward and recent Seattle Open winner Jonas Souto Comino to reach the last 16, only to narrowly be denied by Gorst in a 10-8 defeat.
Elsewhere, Connecticut’s Alex Bausch pulled off a stunning 10-6 win over fourth seed Alcaide in the opening round, while Venezuela’s Jesus Atencio beat Mickey Krause on his way to the last 16.
The World Nineball Tour remains stateside for this weekend’s Beasley Open in Raleigh, North Carolina from April 17-19, before returning to Europe for the Helsinki Open, the Scottish Open and the prestigious UK Open Championship.
