Jesus Atencio has hailed his sensational victory over Fedor Gorst as his greatest ever moment, having stunned the world number one to reach the last 64 at the inaugural Florida Open Championship.
Venezuela’s Atencio, who is regarded as one of the current best players from South America, led 5-2 but needed to fend off a valiant comeback from the two-time world champion, eventually prevailing a 9-7 winner.
Atencio produced a scintillating one-rail kick on the eight ball in what proved to be the final rack following an error and safety from Gorst, which caused the Orlando crowd to erupt into raucous applause.
“It’s obviously an honour for me to play against the best player in the world,” Atencio told Matchroom Pool following one of the biggest victories of his career.
“This tournament is not like the tournaments I play normally because I have my family with me – I have my parents with me, I have my wife, I have my daughter. They came to watch me and that’s everything. I think that’s why I played like this today and I’m really happy.
“This is the best moment of my life and my whole career in pool so far. I just want to stay focused for my next match and try to enjoy every single moment and have fun with the whole crowd.”
Atencio wasn’t the only player to achieve a giant-killing victory in the winners’ qualification round as Greece’s Antonis Kakaris pulled off one his greatest wins, defeating Francisco Sanchez Ruiz in a 9-2 rout.
Dimitris Loukatos banished recent World Championship quarter-finalist Jefrey Roda onto the one-loss side with a 9-8 win, while Johann Chua and Thorsten Hohmann both mounted comebacks from five racks behind to beat Emil Gangflot and Kledio Kaci in hill-hill affairs.
It was less strenuous work in qualifying for the single elimination phase for two-time world champion Carlo Biado, Albin Ouschan and Duong Quoc Hoang as they breezed past Roland Garcia, Alex Bausch and Patric Gonzales respectively.
Former UK Open runner-up Mieszko Fortunski was the most high-profile casualty, exiting the tournament following back-to-back defeats at the hands of Albert Januarta and Lazaro Martinez respectively.
