Taiwan's Ko Pin Yi claims 2023 World Pool Masters title with 13-5 win against Albania's Eklent Kaci
Ko Pin Yi: "It feels so good. The World Pool Masters was the one I wanted to win. After I beat Jayson Shaw, I thought already about winning and jumping on the table. It was tough but I feel so happy to win this tournament. I knew that the only person that could beat me was myself."
Last Updated: 13/05/23 11:14pm
Taiwan's Ko Pin Yi claimed the 2023 World Pool Masters title on Saturday, courtesy of a 13-5 win over Albania's Eklent Kaci in Essex, live on Sky Sports.
"It feels so good. The World Pool Masters was the one I wanted to win," Ko said.
"After I beat Jayson (Shaw), I thought already about winning and jumping on the table. It was tough but I feel so happy to win this tournament.
"I knew that the only person that could beat me was myself."
An entertaining start to the contest saw Kaci claim the first rack, but Ko hit back against a nervous Kaci - a Mosconi Cup winner - to first level at 1-1 and then win again to take a 2-1 lead.
Yet, a cagey next phase saw the scores levelled again at 2-2, before Kaci pulled through a deep safety battle to take a 3-2 advantage.
Any small error was pounced on by the two players and it proved the case with Kaci leading 4-3, as a dry break saw Ko run through the following racks to soon assert a 7-4 lead and an imposing position to push on, breaking and running in the 12th and 13th racks to a 9-4 lead.
Ko did falter in the next rack as he was left chasing the cue ball to keep his run alive allowing Kaci to sweep in and cut the deficit to 9-5. The hope for Kaci was short-lived though as he scratched off the break and then proceeded to scratch again after Ko fluked safe on the six. It meant Ko was only three from victory.
Another long safety battle took hold in the following rack with Kaci feeling the heat. In the final rack, Ko broke well and finished up with a clever 3-9 carom to secure his first major victory since 2015.
It wrapped up an epic run from Ko that saw him overcome Jayson Shaw in the opening round 9-1 before knocking out Shane Van Boening in the quarter-finals 11-7 and an impressive semi-final win against James Aranas 11-9 to reach the final.
