Big Red's Final Four Update From Qatar

Today was another action packed day at the world 9 ball championships in Qatar. The field was narrowed down from 32 to just 4 players who will play the semi-final and final matches tomorrow. Remaining in the field is one Filipino player, and probably not one of the ones you would expect, two Europeans and one player from Taiwan. Jason Klatt, the lone Canadian left in the field, started his quest today against top Filipino Carlo Biado. This match never seemed to have much flow to it as most of the other matches. When these two had completed 6 games most other matches had completed 12 games. Jason did very well in the early stages hanging in with the very creative and strong all around Filipino, winning some safety battles and showing a lot of poise while grinding through some tough racks. After 8 games the score was tied at 4 each, from there Biado held strong and Jason made a few errors in some difficult spots, neither player made any easy errors in the match. The biggest difference for Klatt was that he wasn't getting the shots off the break that he had earlier in the week. Biado only missed one ball the whole match with numerous break and runs and took over the match and won 11-5.

Jason Klatt 

Biado continued to impress by beating out tournament favorite Ko Pin Yi in the next round. Overall I felt like this was a very strong tournament for Klatt,.He had some wins against top players and as I mentioned in previous articles, the level of control and skill he displayed in those wins was very impressive. As usual the very thoughtful Klatt reflected with me after the match and it is evident that he has gained valuable experience at this years tournament and I can guarantee you he will be back!
For me the match of the day was between Wu Jiaqing from Taiwan and Chang Yu Lun also from Taiwan. This was a very high quality match in which after a positional error by Yu Lun a great safety battle ensued, ending eventually with Jiaqing attempting a very tough kick safe in which he missed the ball completely. Yu Lun went on to run out the rack for the win. Another high profile match-up started just 15 minutes later when Yu Lun would play Shane Van Boening who was vying for his first overseas win. 

Before today I had never seen Yu Lun play and I can tell you that he is some kind of special talent. There are certain players that have a eerie presence at the table, to me it's like they are basically walking around like they own the whole room. Wu Jiaqing is one of those players and from what I saw from Yu Lun today I would put him in that category as well. Against Van Boening, Yu Lun made at least 3 supremely tough shots while winning every game on his break whether it was a run-out, a lockup safe, or a push to a jump. The only way Van Boening was going to be beat in this tournament was for a player to come out with a match like Yu Lun did. He went on to win the match 11-8 and in my opinion will be the favorite for the title tomorrow.

Chang Yu Lung

Two Europeans have advanced to the final four as well, Niels Feijen from Holland and Albin Ouschan from Austria. Both players have advanced fairly quietly but without a doubt had some strong wins today. Ouschan defeated last years runner up Antonio Gabica 11-10 after being down 10-7 and then went on to beat Li He Wen from China runner up in 2012. Feijen had wins over Radoslaw Babica, Mario He and most notably finished the day off with a solid 11- 6 win over Carlo Biado. The fourth player through to the final four was Elmer Haya from the Philippines, the Cinderella story of the tournament who advanced all the way from the pre-qualifying stages.
The match ups tomorrow will be as follows: Elmer Haya vs Niels Feijen Albin Ouschan vs Chang Yu Lun Both matches will be at 630 am eastern time and the final will be played at 10am eastern time