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World Pool Masters
The Brentwood Centre
Doddinghurst Road
Pilgrims Hatch
Brentwood
CM15 9NN
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www.brentwood.gov.uk

Wednesday-Saturday 10-13 May 2023

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Kaci and Ko reach 2023 World Pool Masters semis

Eklent Kaçi and Ko Pin Yi joined Niels Feijen and James Aranas in the semi-finals of the 2023 World Pool Masters at the Brentwood Centre, Essex live on Sky Sports in the UK, DAZN in the USA, and networks worldwide.

BRACKET

Kaçi came into his clash with Mario He in red-hot form after overcoming He's World Cup of Pool partner Albin Ouschan in the opening round and it proved to be another epic battle. The Albanian did the early running and led comfortably at 5-1 and it looked an unassailable position but a mountain He would choose to climb rather than falter. He pulled it back to 5-4 but Kaçi kept the Austrian at arms length to take the following two racks to edge over the halfway stage at 7-4.

He left Kaçi in a brutal hook in the 12th rack which led to the Albanian Eagle fouling to give He ball in hand. With ball in hand, He went airborne to try and make a 1-9 combo only for the nine to trickle in the opposite corner for a fluke that brought the two-time World Cup of Pool winner back in it before a further two racks brought it level at 7-7. The contest swung in He's favour for the first time as he soon moved two away at 9-7.

Everything about the contest underlined just why it's the elite of the very elite competing this week underlined by an expert run out by Kaçi to pounce on a rare error from He to get back at the table. Kaçi was crunching them in better than anyone all week and was left with only five on the table and dish up to level at 9-9.

It was proving to be a classic and the drama was not done yet, a break and run put Kaçi to the hill first and he looked to have it locked up in the final rack but went for an ambitious 8-9 combo in the penultimate rack that cost him dearly to allow He to force a one rack shootout after arguably the shot of the match on the eight to pull back for the nine.

In the final rack, a brief safety battle ensued before Kaçi's failed bank seemed to let He in on the four only for the Panda to be jacked up meaning position wasn't ideal. With that, He stunned the four in only to see his cue ball hooked on the five, from there, Kaçi stole the march to reach his second World Pool Masters semi-final in three years.

Kaçi said: "I thought I should've finished the match with the 8-9 and then I thought here we go! Hill hill. When you see the nine like that dead straight and you have an exciting match not for us but for the viewers, it's great to see the nine like that."

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