Ko Pin-Yi Narrowly Beats SVB to Claim World 9 Ball Title

Ko Pin Yi with Shane Van Boening. Photo courtesy of Richard Walker. 

By: Markus Noé

This morning around 6:30 am eastern standard time the semi-finals of the World Championship got underway. They were played simultaneously, however with the luxury of having each table streamed at this event it was not a problem to watch both. In one semi-final, American Shane Van Boening took on Ko Pin-Chung, while Wu Jai-qing played the other Ko brother Ko Pin-Yi.

SVB continued his high level of play from the day before in his semi-final match, beating the younger brother from Chinese Taipei 11-1. For those that did not watch SVB's three rounds yesterday none of his opponents were able to get past 5 games. Going into the final it really did not look like anyone was going to take this World Title away from him.

Wu Jai-qing. Photo courtesy of Richard Walker. 

In the other semi-final match up between the two Asian prodigies, it was a much closer affair. Ko Pin-Yi who won the World 10 Ball Championships earlier this year in the Philippines barely edged out Ja-qing 11-10. This sent Ko Pin-Yi into his second World Championship final of the year and looking for his second title.

Ko Pin-Yi. Photo Courtesy of Richard Walker. 

The final began with some nervous moments for both players and it was apparent in this alternative break format, that "holding serve" would be very important. At 4-4 it was Ko's break and he had a shot at a reasonable 2-9 combination. However at the elite level these players rather not risk the shot in most cases because any combination can be missed. Ko fired at the 2-9 in the corner pocket and missed it, however he hit it hard enough that it went two rails and he lucked the 9 into the side pocket. There were several more rolls like this throughout the match that kept it close, otherwise SVB in my opinion would have run away with this set as well because he was breaking and running nearly every one of his racks.

Shan Van Boening. Photo courtesy of Richard Walker. 

Unfortunately for overseas pool fans like myself the stream went down for a good 20 minutes or so in the middle of the match. By the time the stream came back on it was 10-10 and it was more of the same as each player was holding their serve. At this point it appeared as SVB would go on to lose 13-12 because Ko was the one who was breaking on the hill. However at 11-12 for Ko, SVB broke what otherwise was an excellent break shot however he was slightly hooked on the 2 ball. This forced him to push out to a kick shot which his opponent had the option to give back to him, and is what ended up happening. In an attempt to kick safe SVB left the 2 ball wide open and the rack at the mercy of Ko Pin Yi.  SVB knowing the end was near, started to take off his glove and looked a bit demoralized as he could only look on as Ko knocked in the last few balls to win his second World Championship of the year.

As a North American pool fan my heart goes out to SVB because I know how much flak he has gotten for his overseas performances. However I think he proved himself to be over that hump of not being able to perform outside the U.S in both this years World Championships but also by winning the last two World Pool Masters. However when you are at the caliber of SVB and in talks for not only being one of the greatest from this generation but one of the best of all time, that empty space on the trophy case where a world title should be sticks out.

It was slightly ironic however that the one player that has given the American fits in the past few years, Ko Pin-Yi was the one other player who made it through the 128 player field to deny him his world title. Congratulation to Ko Pin-Yi for making history by winning his second World Championship this year which  and $30,000, this is truly an amazing feat. I would also like to thank Richard Walker for all the great photo's he has sent us this week and a thank you to the organizers of the World Championship for what really was a first class stream. The next big event will be the World Cup of Pool next week in England. This is a scotch doubles event, the two North American teams will be Shane Van Boening/Mike Dechaine and John Morra/Jason Klatt, visit us next week for full reports.