Only eight remain at the 2023 Spanish Open Pool Championship at Pazo de Feiras e Congresos de Lugo, Spain in partnership with The Asociación Gallega de Billar Pool (AGP), live on Sky Sports in the UK and Ireland, DAZN in Spain, the USA, Italy, and Brazil, Viaplay in Scandinavia, the Baltics and Poland and broadcasters worldwide as Skyler Woodward underlined his recent form with a 10-5 win over Kledio Kaçi to reach the quarter-finals.
Woodward’s campaign has been the case of forever getting better after missing out on the World Pool Championship earlier in the year due to travel disruption. The two-time Mosconi Cup MVP had a tough match-up with the younger brother of Eklent in Kledio who proceeded to take the opening rack and go 2-1 up. Woodward kept Kaçi Jr at arms length though throughout to level up at 2-2 and soon go 3-2 up. A run to the semi-finals of the UK Open Pool Championship had clearly left Woodward craving for more pushing to a 6-3 lead from three apiece.
Kaçi did pull it back to 6-5 but Woodward proved too strong for the rookie on his World Nineball Tour debut tournament as the Blue Grass Bad Ass pulled through emphatically with a break and run to finish it 10-5 and set up a crunch clash with Ko Pin Yi in the quarter-finals.
Ko’s Last 16 progression didn’t look likely early on with Naoyuki Oi taking the opening two racks off the 2023 World Pool Masters champion. Oi was looking to continue on a run towards his best finish of the campaign but that would be abruptly ended as Ko took the game to the Japanese star. Ko proceeded to take the next nine racks in a pool clinic for the watching on crowd with Oi only getting a handful of chances at the table to ensure the deficit was cut somewhat to 9-4. The power of Ko did prove too much though as he raced through the final rack to punish the WNT No. 29.
Duong Quoc Hoang’s dream run continued at a canter with the Pride of Vietnam running the opening five racks over Sanjin Pehlivanovic to have half a foot in the quarter-finals after little over half an hour. The Martian’s were not dampened by a brief Pehlivnaovic comeback at 5-2 and 6-4 with Duong’s advantage back to three at 7-4. Pehlivanovic struggled to get a foothold in the contest as it was his opponent rallied towards a comfortable 10-5 victory.
Albin Ouschan was on the end of a hill-hill loss to an inspired Pijus Labutis. Labutis of Lithuania came from behind in the final moments to deal a hammer blow to Ouschan who was looking for a deep run to aid his Mosconi Cup chances. The two-time world champion reached the hill first at 9-8 but uncharacteristically left a hanging six to allow Labutis in togo hill-hill. In the final rack, Labutis broke and run to leave Ouschan in his chair and reach a maiden quarter-final.
Fedor Gorst ensured a first quarter-final since 2021 with victory over Daniel Maciol in an exhibition of pool with the Pole left trailing in his wake 10-2. Maciol frozen having been level at 2-2 in what looked like to be an equal contest but Gorst had over ideas to set up a tie with Labutis for a maiden semi-final berth. Marc Bijsterbosch meanwhile was made to work for his win over Finland’s Jani Uski with the Dutchman making his quarter-final debut at a signature multi-table open tournament overcoming the former Finnish national champion 10-6.
Match Schedule – Click here to see where to watch
TV Table
Ko Pin Yi (TPE) vs Skyler Woodward (USA)
Eklent Kaci (ALB) vs Dang Jin Hu (CHN)
Table 1
Marc Bijsterbosch (NED) vs Duong Quoc Hoang (VIE)
Fedor Gorst vs Pijus Labutis (LTU)
Table 2
FSR Junior Open final
The evening session begins from 7 pm local time (CEST) with match odds available through online gaming websites. Earlier today, outright odds could be found at the below odds.
- Skyler Woodward – 7/2
- Ko Pin Yi – 6/1
- Duong Quoc Hoang 12/1
- Pijus Labutis – 66/1
Live rack-by-rack scoring will be available throughout the event at www.matchroompool.com thanks to our partners PRP.
Wherever you are in the world, you will be able to sweat the action with broadcasters globally and live on the Matchroom Pool and Multi Sport YouTube channels in selected territories and on Matchroom.Live. UK and Ireland based fans can see the final two days on Sky Sports. Fans in the USA will be able to watch all six days live on DAZN whilst those in Scandinavia, the Baltics, Poland, and Netherlands can watch live on Viaplay. Fans in the Philippines meanwhile will be able to sweat the action on TAP Go and those in Vietnam on VietContent channels.
See where to watch in your country here.
The Spanish Open Pool Championship is one of five 256-player field tournaments promoted by Matchroom on the World Nineball Tour in partnership with The Asociación Gallega de Billar Pool (AGP), with players set to fight through a seeded double elimination stage led by the top 128 on the World Nineball Tour Rankings before only 64 make it to the single elimination rounds.