Then There was 4: SVB Shocks Orcollo 11-1 at the World Championships

Final four left, Ko Pin Chung, Ko Pin Yi, Shane Van Boening, Wu Jai-qing. Photo courtesy of Richard Walker. 

By: Markus Noé

Today in Doha, Qatar the 32 remaining players returned the play down to final four. As this is a single elimination format three rounds were played today. There were some big names left such as John Morra, Shane Van Boening, Wu Jia-qing, Mika Immonen, and of course the highly touted Ko brothers.

John Morra. Photo courtesy of Richard Walker. 

Being a Canadian I will be honest, a little more than my fair share of attention was directed on my friend and countrymen John Morra. He has had an incredible 2015 thus far with several top finishes including a second place at Turning Stone in January and followed that up shortly after with a second place at the China Open. The day started with a match against one of the top players from Great Britain, Mark Gray. This was a thrilling match and at times did not look good for the Canadian hopeful as he was down 10-8 in a race to 11. He was able to make the comeback and win 11-10 which was no easy feat considering this is an alternate break format.

Mika Immonen. Photo Courtesy of Richard Walker 

From there he met up with the always dangerous Mika Immonen who at one time or another has won virtually every major title. It looked to be the end for Morra's run at this year's World Championships when he was down 8-4, however Morra mustered up another epic comeback winning 11-8.


In the final 8 Morra had his toughest test to date up against Ko Pin Yi from Chinese Taipei. A few costly mistakes for Morra made a big difference in this match. At 4-4 in my opinion it could have easily been 6-2 for Morra but a few errors gave Ko some much needed momentum. From there the scoreline went to 7-6 for Ko with Morra missing a tough pot on the 4 ball to go down 8-6 and was never able to recover losing 11-6 from there.

Shane Van Boening. Photo courtesy of Richard Walker. 

Shane Van Boening who once again this year looks poised to win his first World Championship had a great day. He started by dismantling the Spaniard Francisco Jose Diaz Pizarro 11-5. After that he played Chang Yu and won by by the same scoreline 11-5.In the next round which was the final 8, he continued on his torrid pace beating a very formidable opponent Dennis Orcollo 11-1. If SVB keeps this up we could be crowning the first American World Champion in sometime. He will face Ko Pin Chung in the semi-final while the other Ko brother will be up against Wu Jia-qing.

For those who might not remember Jia-qing he is a multiple World Champion and the youngest one ever to win a world title which he did at 16 years old. The final 4 is very intriguing as we could see an all Ko final or perhaps we could see a very deserving SVB take home his first world title. The semi-finals will be played at 6:30 am eastern standard time and the final will be at 10:30 am. You can watch the stream for free here http://live.qbsf.qa/en/qbsf. Make sure to check back in tomorrow to see who will be this years World Champion. For full results on today check the brackets here http://competition.kozoom.com/en/home/qatar/.