Hong Kong’s Robbie Capito one win from making history at Predator World 10-ball Championship in Las Vegas
- Victory in the last 16 against Darren Appleton would make Captio the first Hongkonger to reach quarter-finals of pool world championship
- The 20-year-old is undefeated so far in the tournament, which is being contested by 128 players
Hong Kong’s Robbie Capito could make history with one more win at the Predator World 10-ball Championship in Las Vegas on Friday.
The 20-year-old is one victory away from becoming the city’s first pool player to make the quarter-finals of a world championship tournament.
Capito has made a strong start to the event, in which 128 players are competing for a US$226,000 prize fund. The Hongkonger steadily progressed through the early rounds, and came from behind to beat the 31-year-old Singaporean Sharik Sayed 10-7 in the round of 32 on Thursday.
Next up in the last 16 is 2005 world 10-ball champion Darren Appleton, who beat Finnish Mika Immonen, the 2009 world 10-ball winner.
Three years ago, Capito stunned the top-ranked players at the World 9-ball Championship in Doha, where he won 11-10 from 7-1 down against then world No 1 Eklent Kaci of Albania.
This time around, Captio has yet to lose and has already beaten the reigning Las Vegas Open champion Wiktor Zielinski, and 2021 World Pool Masters champion Alex Kazakis of Greece.
If he can get past Appleton, the likes of defending champion Ekent Kaci and 2009 World 10-ball runner-up Lee Vann Corteza remain in the top half of the draw, while the reigning US Open Champion Carlo Biado and Derby City Classic 9-ball champion Francisco Sanchez Ruiz are in the bottom half.