Defending champion Mario He is through to the winners’ qualification round of this year’s FargoRate Ohio Open but some of pool’s biggest names crashed to the losers side on the opening day of play at the Roberts Center in Wilmington, Ohio.
Played alongside the CSI Ohio State Championships, the FargoRate Ohio Open has a $75,000 prize fund and is streamed live on the World Billiard TV YouTube channel and at Watchbilliard.tv.
He began his tournament with a 4-1, 4-3 win against Lian Han Toh. Germany Open winner Dimitris Loukatos was waiting in the next round. The Austrian took the first set 4-1 and was playing well to reach the hill 3-0 in the second set before he missed an easy 4. Loukatos cleared the table but his hopes of a comeback were ended by a dry break and He completed the set for a 4-1, 4-1 win.
He faces Michael Schneider next and said: “I got a little injured so I cannot walk fast but I am feeling good and playing good at the moment. I will try my best to get deep and maybe defend my title.”
Some big names have found themselves on the losers’ side early in the tournament, such is the quality of this week’s field. Ko Ping Han and Ko Pin Yi may have to face each other on Thursday after both lost shootouts in the opening round. Ping Han was beaten 2-4, 4-3, 4-2 by Petri Makkonen after missing the 9 at hill-hill in the second set, while Pin Yi was beaten 4-3, 3-4, 6-5 by Dutchman Jan van Lierop.
World 10-Ball Champion Wojiech Szewczyk was beaten by Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz, Darren Appleton lost a shootout to Kang Lee, and Wiktor Zielinski suffered defeat to Albin Ouschan.
Eklent Kaci was beaten 4-3, 4-1 by Chang Jung-Lin, who himself later lost to Justin Martin. The 23-year-old from North Carolina took the first set against Chang 4-1 and the second 4-2, and will face Sanchez-Ruiz in winners’ qualification tomorrow. “This is a huge win for me because I have an insane amount of respect for Chang,” said Martin. “I played solid throughout and was blessed to have enough chances to win the match.”
The players yet to suffer defeat now have two chances to qualify for the last 16. Alex Kazakis faces David Alcaide in the winners’ qualification round, Seybert’s Michigan Open winner Aloysius Yapp will take on Jani Uski while Fedor Gorst will face Mika Immonen on Friday.
The FargoRate Ohio Open continues from 10am ET on Thursday with six matches streamed free on Billiard TV, the World Billiard TVYouTube channel and at Kozoom.com
Brackets and scores can be found at https://probilliardseries.com/2022-fargorate-ohio-open/
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