United States faces tough Brazilian test in Houston
filed on Saturday, February 2, 2019. 5:20pm PT/USA
After swift round of 16 victories for both Brazil's Igor Figueiredo and the reigning United States National Snooker Champion, Ahmed Aly Elsayed, the pair will battle it out for a place in the semifinals of the 2019 Pan American Sooker Championship at Q Ball Snooker & Pool in Houston, Texas.
The 41-year-old from Rio de Janeiro, who reached a highest ranking of 65 as a professional playing on the World Snooker Tour, will start as favorite, after he ran out a comfortable 4-0 winner over Saif Ibrahim of the United States, assisted with breaks of 63 and 43.
However, it was Aly who shot a new Championship highest break during his 4-0 win over the local Houston player Blaine Barcus, who had impressed to finish top of his group, as the player from Brooklyn eclipsed Figueiredo's previous top break with a run of 99.
The twice former United States National Snooker Champion, Ajeya Prabhakar, also booked his quarterfinal berth with, in his own words, a "scrappy" 4-0 win over the Brazilian player Osni Xavier Kuss, where he will now take on another local Houston player, Mark White, who fought back from 3-1 down to defeat Brazil's Victor Sarkis 4-3.
Another United States player who is moving swiftly through the draw is Chicago's Renat Denkha, a semifinalist in the 2017 United States National Snooker Championship, as he came through 4-0 against Brazil's Fabio Luiz Gusso, and has now set up an intriguing quarterfinal tie against Canada's Levi Meiller, who squeezed past his American opponent Laszlo Kovacs 4-3 in the round of 16 after trailing 3-2.
The fifth American player to make it through to the quarterfinals is Californian Mike Collier who secured a 4-1 success over Brazil's Rafael Franceschi Gusso, and he will face John White who narrowly won the all-Canadian round of 16 tie 4-3 over Charlie Brown.
The full Schedule of results and Knockout draw charts can be downloaded by clicking on the following links (PDF format):
» Match schedule and results
» Knockout draw chart
The round of 16 results as follows:
Round of 16 (Best-of-7 frames) |
Match ID |
Player |
|
Player |
R16-1 |
Igor Figueiredo ( Brazil ) |
4 - 0 |
Saif Ibrahim ( U.S.A. ) |
R16-2 |
Blaine Barcus ( U.S.A. ) |
0 - 4 |
Ahmed Aly Elsayed ( U.S.A. ) |
R16-3 |
Victor Sarkis ( Brazil ) |
3 - 4 |
Mark White ( U.S.A. ) |
R16-4 |
Ajeya Prabhakar ( U.S.A. ) |
4 - 0 |
Osni Xavier Kuss ( Brazil ) |
R16-5 |
John White ( Canada ) |
4 - 3 |
Charlie Brown ( Canada ) |
R16-6 |
Rafael Franceschi Gusso ( Brazil ) |
1 - 4 |
Mike Collier ( U.S.A. ) |
R16-7 |
Levi Meiller ( Canada ) |
4 - 3 |
Laszlo Kovacs ( U.S.A. ) |
R16-8 |
Renat Denkha ( U.S.A. ) |
4 - 0 |
Fabio Luiz Gusso ( Brazil ) |
The quarterfinals draw as follows:
Quarterfinals (Best-of-7 frames) |
Match ID |
Player |
|
Player |
QF1 |
Igor Figueiredo ( Brazil ) |
vs. |
Ahmed Aly Elsayed ( U.S.A. ) |
QF2 |
Mark White ( U.S.A. ) |
vs. |
Ajeya Prabhakar ( U.S.A. ) |
QF3 |
John White ( Canada ) |
vs. |
Mike Collier ( U.S.A. ) |
QF4 |
Levi Meiller ( Canada ) |
vs. |
Renat Denkha ( U.S.A. ) |
Results and reports from the 2019 Pan American Snooker Championship will appear here on SnookerUSA.com.