"Big Three" was eliminated from the European Billiards: Ouschan, Yi and Shaw batteries have an obsession.
A number of big names tumbled at the European Open Pool Championship in Fulda, Germany.
Defending champion Albin Ouschan, Ko Pin Yi, Johann Chua, and Jayson Shaw were the heavy hitters to fall on the fourth day of the 2023 European Open Pool Championship.
On a day that saw the field cut from 64 to the final 16, Shaw tumbled at the first hurdle of the day against defending champion Albin Ouschan despite his best efforts to salvage something in a scrappy affair
which saw both players leaving balls hanging with neither at their best.
Ouschan kept Shaw at arms length for most parts before Shaw pulled it tight to 8-9.
Still, he couldn't make it pay in what proved to be the concluding rack after losing position on the five to leave the table open
for Ouschan to step in and reach the Last 32 against Poland's Daniel Maciol who had earlier knocked out former World Champion Mika Immonen.
Maciol put on one of the strongest showings of the week so far to send the defending champion home.
Recent World Cup of Pool winner Chua took down Vietnam's Nguyen Cong Thanh earlier in the day but fell at the mercy of a rampant former US Open finalist in Aloysius Yapp who ran up an 8-0 lead with very little concern.
Chua pulled two back on Yapp but the Singaporean always held the chips and he came good for 10-2 and will meet Fedor Gorst in the Last 16.
Gorst meanwhile was put through the wringer by Yuma Dorner and Imran Majid to make the final knockings.
Ko made a big statement in the Last 64 by dispatching Georgi Georgiev 10-1 after the Bulgarian had knocked his brother Ping Chung out of the tournament.
Anton Raga stood in the way of another weekend appearance and showed to be one of the matches of the tournament.
Raga blew through the opening nine racks with break and runs, and he continued on that way with Ko getting to the table on two occasions as the Filipino put the World Pool Masters champion to the sword 10-0.
A packed-out crowd witnessed some of the best matchups of the year so far throughout the day and they were treated to an all-American battle on Table 1
with Skyler Woodward meeting Tyler Styer with the former in pole position for the first automatic spot on Team USA for the 2023 Mosconi Cup whilst the latter needed a deep run to get back into the picture.
Styer put on one of the showings of recent times in his career to reach the Last 16 with a 10-4. Styer sets up a tie with Mario He tomorrow.
Local favourites were aplenty heading into Friday but some slowly fell away as others came good.
Video:
Moritz Neuhausen harvested hopes of a weekend appearance but Konrad Juszczyszyn ended that in the Last 64 whilst Shane Van Boening took Fitim Haradinaj out the picture and Tim De Ruyter sent Can Salim home.
Radoslaw Babica was no match for Tobias Bongers in the Last 64 but De Ruyter put Bongers out the tournament.
Ralf Souquet set up a tantalising evening clash with WNT number one Francisco Sanchez Ruiz
for a spot in the Last 16 whilst Joshua Filler gathered ahead of steam to reach the weekend at a canter with a 10-1 demolition of Karl Gnadeberg in the Last 32.
Hometown hero Thorsten Hohmann took down Jonas Souto but missed out to Shane Van Boening convincingly with Souquet soon bowing out to Sanchez Ruiz 10-5 to complete the Last 16 line-up.
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