ALCAIDE IS DAFABET WORLD POOL MASTERS CHAMPION
David Alcaide 9 – 8 Alexander Kazakis
Photo’s By JP Parmentier/Matchroom Multi Sport’
Semi-Finals
David Alcaide 8 – 3 Eklent Kaci
Alexander Kazakis 8 – 1 Skyler Woodward
DAVID ALCAIDE is the 2019 Dafabet World Pool Masters Champion as he won an absolute belter of a final as he came from behind to beat Alexander Kazakis 9-8 in front of a packed crowd at the Tercentenary Hall at the Victoria Stadium in Gibraltar.
Both players put their hearts and souls into the final and left nothing out there but it was Alcaide, a winner here in 2017, who won the dramatic deciding rack to send his battery of fans into a frenzy.
Having clawed his way back from a losing position, at 0-5 and then 5-8, Alcaide broke in the decider. He ran out of position though with the five ball on the rail and attempted to swerve the cue ball and flick it down the cushion. It failed and left a great opportunity for Kazakis.
The Greek, under huge pressure, cleared the table down to the 8 and 9 balls but completely fluffed the positional shot after pocketing the 8 and left himself with either a bank into the centre pocket for the win or a safety.
He chose safety and left the cue ball and object balls at opposite ends of the table. However, seizing the opportunity, Alcaide banked the 9 ball down table and it rolled straight into the heart of the pocket for a magnificent victory.
“This is unbelievable,” said jubilant Alcaide immediately after the match. “I played that final for all the fans and my daughter, Daniella. Every ball I was thinking it was for her and I played to win
“I only thought please Alex give me one more chance. I tried to make every rack but this is 9-ball, it is a tough way for Alex to lose, he played a really good tournament. Now I want to celebrate this tournament!”
In front of a sold-out crowd, Kazakis opened the proceedings with an 8/9 combo and then ran out the second for a two-nil lead in the race to nine final. There was no stopping the Greek star as he took the next as his opponent waited for some table time.
Alcaide had that chance in the sixth game as Kazakis left the 3-ball over the side pocket. He swerved to pot it and then cleared the table for his first rack. The Spaniard came with some clutch pots in the next after he lost position and managed to bring the score back to 5-2.
He took the next to close the gap but there was drama in the ninth game as Alcaide missed a cut on the 9 ball but left it semi-safe. Kazakis took on the bank shot back up the table but missed by some distance only to see the nine creep back down the table and drop into the pocket for a 6-3 lead.
Kazakis reasserted himself in the next to increase his lead before Alcaide took the 12th rack much to the delight of his fans in the audience as the score moved to 7-4. There was more in the next as Alcaide ran out from the break to close in on Kazakis.
There was disaster for Alcaide in the 13th game as the cue ball received a last-minute kick following the beak off to see it fall into the middle pocket. With ball-in-hand, the Greek made no mistakes as he ran the table to get to the hill at 8-5.
Alcaide had a chance in the next as Kazakis hooked himself travelling from the one to the two-ball. The safety wasn’t tight enough and Alcaide made a nervy run out to get to 6-8. After a couple of safeties, the 2017 champion had an opportunity and ran through the balls to leave him one behind Kazakis and two from victory.
From 8-5 down, Alcaide took the next to level it at 8-8 and go favourite with the break in the deciding rack.
A dejected Kazakis said, “I didn’t win. I was lucky in the whole match; I didn’t play that well. I won some racks with a good roll and David fought really, really hard. From 5-0 down he was running out everything and he really deserved it. But I had my chance and I dogged it.
“I don’t want to see that final again. I played really well in the other three matches but right now I am really disappointed.”
2019 Dafabet World Pool Masters is sponsored by Rasson Billiards who supplies the Official Table; the cloth is supplied by Iwan Simonis and the Official Balls are Super Aramith by Saluc. Predator is the Official Cue of the event, Kamui are the Official Chalk and Tip and Ultimate Team Gear provide all World Pool Masters apparel.
Nick Teale, Matchroom Multi Sport: nick.teale@matchroom.com
WORLD POOL MASTERS: SEEDS FALL IN GIBRALTAR
LAST 16
Niels Feijen (NED) 3 – 7 David Alcaide (ESP)
Han Yu (CHN) 6 – 7 Shane van Boening (USA)
Ko Pin-Yi (TPE) 6 – 7 Alex Pagulayan (CAN)
Alexander Kazakis (GRE) 7 – 3 Justin Sajich (AUS)
Photo’s By JP Parmentier/Matchroom Multi Sport’
PLAY CONTINUED at the Dafabet World Pool Masters with four of the first round matches the Victoria Stadium in Gibraltar. There was plenty of excitement with two matches going all the way as two-time winner Shane Van Boening came within a whisker of elimination.
David Alcaide enjoyed another 7-3 win as he coasted past defending champion Niels Feijen to keep on track for his second Masters title. The veteran Spaniard, a champion here in 2017, never really looked in trouble as he pulled away from the shaky Dutchman in the latter half of the game.
“This tournament, I remember two years ago I played not perfectly but at 95%. Today, I didn’t have a good break. It is very important when you play close to home to have the support from your home fans. When you play the World Pool Masters every player is a top player in the world so it doesn’t matter who you play.”
The most dramatic match of the session saw two-time winner Shane Van Boening crawl over the line as he narrowly escaped a first-round exit at the hands of China’s Ladies World No.1 Han Yu.
With Han starting the match at as much as 11/1 there were few who gave her much of a chance but she took the opening rack after a long safety battle with the six-ball tied up with the 9.
Van Boening took the next two racks but missed a relatively straight forward two ball to allow Han to level. She then surged ahead and at 6-3 and breaking had every chance of landing the upset. A misjudged safety allowed Van Boening back in and he ran out for 6-4 and he took racks 11 and 12 to make it hill-hill. Han got back to the table in the last but Van Boeing held on to survive a massive scare.
The next match also went down to a decider as Alex Pagulayan made it two wins in two days as he dislodged Ko Pin-yi by 7-6. The plucky Canadian-Filipino had a tough draw – he defeated Wu Jiaqing yesterday and was rewarded with Ko – but was in irrepressible form to dispose of those two world-beaters.
In the final match of the session, yesterday’s giant-killer, Justin Sajich of Australia, failed to make further progress as he was stopped in his tracks by Alex Kazakis of Greece.
Kazakis, who qualified for the Masters by virtue of being World No.1 at the close of 2018, had too much as he closed out the match for a 7-3 win and a quarter-final match against either Konrad Juszczyszyn or Matt Edwards.
Play continues on Saturday evening with the conclusion of the Last 16 matches:
Jayson Shaw (SCO) v Eklent Kaci (ALB)
Konrad Juszczyszyn (POL) v Matt Edwards (NZL)
Joshua Filler (GER) v Albin Ouschan (AUT)
Skyler Woodward (USA) v Fedor Gorst (RUS)
