9-Ball
After an enormously thrilling final match from both players at the Dynamic Billard Leende Open 2018, Shane van Boening (USA) defeated Eklent Kaci (ALB) with a heartbreaking 9:8.
The match was a hell of a thriller. Kaci started out furiously and won the first 5 consecutive racks. Van Boening was a bit unlucky and Kaci capitalised from all mistakes without any merci. Somehow van Boening managed to turn the tide in the match. He got to 1:6 and then got some momentum. He took three racks in a row before he allowed Kaci another rack in his account. When the score was 4:7 from van Boening’s point of view, he again shifted into overdrive and got to 7:7. At that time, he went for his timeout. He came back and the Albanian got to the hill first, winning rack 15 to make the score 8:7 for Kaci. Then van Boening broke and ran rack 16 to make the match a hill-hill affair. It was Kaci’s break in the deciding rack 17. He executed a nearly perfect break shot and had the 1-ball and the 5-ball down with a perfect layout and an easy shot on the 2-ball. However, he pocketed the 2-ball but fell short in position for the 3-ball. Because of that, he could not cut the 3-ball in but went for a bank shot. He pocketed the 3-ball over the bank and put the cue ball behind the 7-ball. The 4-ball was completely hidden. What a drama for Kaci. He went for his jump stick and tried to jump the 4-ball in but missed it. Van Boening got to the table and cleared all balls remaining, winning the final match of the Dynamic Billard Leende Open 2018 by a whisker with 9:8 after a brilliant final.
„I always believe in myself“, said van Boening after the final match when asked about the situation when he was trailing 0:5 and 1:6. „I worked on my mental side and I practice a lot. I try to stay calm in those situations and it helped me a lot today“. „Coming to Europe and winning the Euro-Tour as the first American really makes me proud“, van Boening added.
Top Eight Finishers
1. Shane van Boening (USA)
2. Eklent Kaci (ALB)
3. Albin Ouschan (AUT)
Pijus Labutis (LIT)
5. Corey Deuel (USA)
Skyler Woodward (USA)
Kim Laaksonen (FIN)
Petri Makkonen (FIN)
This finish puts Eklent Kaci as the new #1 on the top of the Euro-Tour rankings. „I am very proud to be the #1 ranked player now in Europe,“ Kaci mentioned. „But to be honest at the moment I still suffer from this defeat in the final“, Kaci admitted.
The overall result showed a strong US team playing the Euro-Tour in Leende. Out of 9 players staring on Thursday, 4 were among the last 16 of 159 contestants in total. That is a pretty impressive result and probably gives them a good feeling when travelling home to prepare for the next events.
That concludes the coverage of the Dynamic Billard Leende Open 2018 Euro-Tour event. The next event to be covered will be the Dynamic Billard Klagenfurt Open 2018, October 11-14.
The event is hosted by the European Governing Body for Pool, the European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) and organised by International Billiard Promotion (IBP). For further information and reference please go to www.eurotouronline.com . You can also visit us on our Facebook page or check out the EPBF YouTube channel for regular news clips or contact our press office press@epbf.com.