Billiards pro Mario He won the bronze medal at the 9-Ball World Championships in Poland. With third place, Rankweiler just missed the final. Initially, however, things looked good in the decisive game, despite the lead, the second in the world rankings then lost to the Spanish top favorite Francisco Ruiz.
Mario He got his next individual medal in world title fights with place 3 at the 325,000 US Dollar (298,300 Euro) 9-Ball World Championships in Kielce, Poland. He won his first bronze medal at the 8-Ball World Championships in San Juen in Puerto Rico in November 2022, and now he has also made it into the last four in Poland.
He: “Two, three wrong decisions made”
In the semi-finals once morest the eventual world champion and Spaniard Francisco Sanchez Ruiz, the leader in the WPA world rankings, the beefy Rankweiler missed the jump into his very first individual world championship final on Sunday. He was on course up to the score of 8-4 before the thread broke and in the end he lost 8-11.
“I actually played very well throughout the World Cup and my break came well. In the semifinals, however, I made two or three wrong decisions towards the end, which made all the difference. Overall, it was another very good performance from me,” said He following the lost game.
World Cup gameplay
The World Cup participants included 128 players from 45 nations. From the basic round of 9 competitions (“Race to 9”), which was held in double KO mode, 64 players made it into the KO phase. From then on, the “Race to 11” mode was continued and the final of 13 competitions (“Race to 13”) was held.