Final 64 Update: Feijen & Hohmann Eliminated From World Championship

2014 Champion Niels Feijen

By: Markus Noé

Today was the last chance for players on the one loss side in the group stage to qualify for the final 64 redraw. With some big names facing elimination it promised to be an action pact day in Doha, Qatar. The last match playing on today's stream was Niels Feijen vs Woo Seang. Feijen is of course the defending champion and was a bit of a shock to see him facing elimination today. 

This match went hill/hill with Seang facing a fairly simple run out for the win. There was one problem with the 8 ball blocking the pocket so he was forced to play position for the 4-8 combination. The position he was left with was not ideal but he was forced to take on the shot. He potted the combination and was a bit unlucky as the 4 ball followed the 8 in leaving him an off angle long shot on the 7. After walking around the table a few times he fired the 7 in and got nearly perfect on the 9 eliminating the reigning champion. 

Other surprising results today was multiple World Champion Thorsten Hohmann being eliminated 9-4 against the Spaniard Francisco Jose Diaz Pizarro. Karl Boyes was also eliminated today losing 9-7 to Pang Fong. Canadian Jason Klatt faced off against Petri Makkonen, many would remember him from his successful venture with countrymen Mika Immonen at the World Cup of Pool. Klatt was on top of his game today as he won with ease 9-2 and set up a rematch with Jeffery Ignacio. It should be a rare occurrence but it seems to happen every year where two players who met in the group stage meet up right away in the final 64 redraw. This should be an interesting match up as there was a little bit of controversy in their previous match. It appeared Ignacio was pattern racking, so Klatt will be looking for revenge in this single elimination redraw. 

Tom Theriault. Photo courtesy of Richard Walker. 

The two other Canadians who are both first time World Champion participants, Tom Theriault and Shannon Ducharme were both eliminated today. Theriault lost to Lee Van Corteza 9-2 while Ducharme did a little better but came up short losing to Warren Kiamco 9-6. Cue Sport Nation would like to extend our congratulations to these two for not only making the World Championships but both winning matches and representing Canada with class. 

Waleed Majid. Photo courtesy of Richard Walker. 

A side story to this years World Championships thus far is the the amount of Middle Eastern representation in the field. This is curious for a few reasons, the main one is there is only really two known middle eastern world class talents. Originally it was slated that only 16 would qualify but by the time the final bracket of 128 was set there was around 40. It can only be speculated that other countries could not find willing participants go to Qatar this year and these spots needed to be filled. To speculate further I would say this had something to do with the pay structure this year as it is only $30,000 to the winner and 5th place pays as low as $4500 which is almost just breaking even for many players after expenses. For a world championship this really is unfortunate to see. Also the majority of these 40 are not considered top talents which means there are a lot of holes in the brackets which allowed some players to make it to the top 64 with ease. The number 1# ranked Middle Eastern player Waleed Majid had a disappointing end to his run at the World Championships today losing 9-5 to Justin Campbell of England. 

Hunter Lombardo. Photo courtesy of Richard Walker. 

On the American side of things Hunter Lombardo completed the trifecta with his win over Bashar Hussain 9-8. This means that all three Americans have qualified  for the redraw. Play will continue around 5:00 AM local time and each match will be streamed live for free @ http://live.qbsf.qa/en/qbsf and the brackets can be found @ http://competition.kozoom.com/en/home/qatar/. Make sure to check back daily for all your World Championship updates. 

Notable Scorelines:

APPLETON (Darren) 9-2 FAHIM (Sinha)

 MAKKONEN (Petri) 2-9 KLATT (Jason)

 BOYES (Karl) 7-9 FONG PANG (Chao)

 FRANCISCO (Diaz-Pizarro) 9-4 HOHMANN (Thorsten)

 SEANG WOO (Ryu) 9-8 FEIJEN (Niels)

 (Mishel) 9-5 PEACH (Daryl)

 VAN DEN BERG (Nick) 4-9 CHINAKHOV (Ruslan)

 VAN CORTEZA (Lee) 9-2 TERIAULT (Tom)

  JUNG LIN (Chang) 6-9 GONZALES CHUA (Johann)

  DUCHARME (Shannon) 6-9 KIAMCO (Warren)

  SAEED (Mohammad) 5-9 LONG (Zhou)

  LOMBARDO (Hunter) 9-8 HUSSAIN (Bashar)

   AFRINNEZA NASUTION (Irsan) 8-9 OUSCHAN (Albin)