FINAL | Highlights | 2021 World Pool Championship

Big-time player Albin Aoshen. One of the best in the world. But excels on the biggest stage. Hasn't won so many European titles or EuroTour titles. Yeah, that's right. He's definitely a big-time player. He loves this arena. Likes playing in front of a crowd on TV. Very smooth cueist as well. And it's worth bearing in mind that in the semifinals he secured six racks by breaking and running out. Pot success rate in that semifinal 99%. Has been playing solid and consistent throughout the whole tournament. But after the jump against Woodward, score 6-5, that's when everything kicked into place. Has gone up a gear. And that is the kind of start you dream about. Winning the lag, breaking, putting three balls on the break and then knocking in the rest of them. Albin Aoshen leads 1-0. Dead angle for the cue ball. This is just the start he was after because he knows Omar was a little bit edgy in his semifinals and rightfully so. So if he can put a few racks together here, well, it's a dream start. Cue ball has been very good in the opening two racks. In June, cold isn't a word you associate with Kuwait. Could have gone one rail with more angle. I like going forward, Carl. Two rails land in between the eight and nine. Yeah, I think Albin Aoshen will play that shot. Has a very good cue ball to his Albin, doesn't he? Always lands nice on the next ball. Which, of course, then makes that shot a lot easier. There you see, that's exactly what Mr Lely was talking about. Using the two rails. Big margin for him. What a start. Awesome, Albin. Outstanding Aoshen. 3-0 just like that. Omar Al-Shaheen yet to play a shot. Estimate how much concentration it requires to control the cue ball. Inexperienced again, Alex, on this table. Yes, definitely. Got to play this table with soft hands. Let the cue ball react the correct way off the rail. Yeah, play the table. You had a chat before with Rob Spencer. And about the difference between snooker and pool. And that the pool players take time when the ball seems to be in a straightforward position. But that's in regard to what you said, Karl. You really need to assess what the proper shot is. Well, that was much needed. In many respects, Omar Al-Shaheen rode his luck there. But he did get the rack on the board. Jean-Luc was like finding a balance between compact and fluid. Yeah, I'd like to see this a lot smoother. Don't hit this hard as he fires it in. Yeah, that was it. That was like a nice mixture. After Auchin's mistake-free start, it was a missed two ball in the fourth rack. A misjudged bank on the three in the fifth. And now, Omar Al-Shaheen is only one behind. Try and get near the left. Always try to hold it. Straight again. Straight-ish. Yeah, he's... Well, this is a little bit tricky. Is he going to play this with a little bit of drag? Or is he going to play a stun run-through? He's feeling so much better now. We're in for a match, folks. Auchin's missed two ball in the fourth rack. Gave Omar Al-Shaheen just a little bit of daylight. Boy, has he taken advantage. We're on level terms. He can manipulate the deflection. Yeah, and he might play a good cue ball as well. Because the three balls up the top. Yeah, this looks nice. If he misses the six, he might land on this in the right centre. I think he's got a shot, Alex. Nice shot. Bar was open. So, as we expect. Where's the cue ball? Don't be putting your hand in the pocket. Charge clock, please. So, let's re-watch the break. What happened? Was it a kiss? Yeah, I believe a ball. Kicked it all the way up the rail. That's something that just can never be helped. That is agony when you're breaking. You just want to snap your break cue over your knee. And he can, with left spin, to open the angle and get behind to one ball. Two rails. Got to be careful. You can scratch in the top left. One for Karl. And ball on end for Omar. Well, in rack six, Auchin failed to escape from a hook. This time, he does make contact. But it's a foul shot, nevertheless. Well called by vice-captain Boyes. It looks not a bad shot. It looks like a bad shot. But it's millimetres away from a kick and stick, as you like to call it, Alex. Very clear there. That compact action from Omar. Equalising once again. Indeed, the Kuwait Tiger is not going away. For the third time, he achieves parity. 3-3, 4-4, now 5-5. Match on. Keep him under pressure. Attention, please. Surely he's not going to attack the one. Okay, so he's banked the one ball up table into the cluster that he made on the push-out. Well, would have been a good shot had that one ball been hidden. This is an easy out for Albin. He's looking if he even has a chance to make the nine. Yeah, and he's looking closely. So I think he fancies this. I think it's close. It's close and it's there. Bit of a strange shot from Omar there. Tied it up on the push-out. Took a risk. Nothing like a good combo though. 1-9 in that instance. And tries he might. Omar al-Shaheen just can't hit the front. Albin Alshan is back in the ascendancy at 6-5. 1-9. And for him, all is fine. We once had a tournament in Romania where the players were heart rate meters. And the peaks in heart rates were when the opponent made a good shot or a very bad shot or a fluke. So what I'm trying to say is when Albin played that poor safety on the two ball, Omar's heart rate spiked. Leading, I think, to that miss on the four. Come across. Oh my word. Didn't see that coming. Albin is usually so reliable. What a moment in this match. At the risk of repetition. It had to be the six. Wow. That's criminal. Always play into the rail on a dual table. Makes the pocket so much bigger. Three big mistakes in total in two wrecks. Pressure is mounting. And the winning line is getting ever closer. Albin Alshan will be kicking himself there. The missed six ball. No one could have foreseen that. Omar Alshaheen regains the advantage. Yeah, if anybody's watching, wondering what one pocket is, it's just a game that you play on a pool table. Albin's going airborne. He trails nine racks to seven. This is a big shot coming up. He's to get the cue ball back down the table for the pink four. Watch out. Eight ball. And that's not bad. That's not bad. But look where the five is. There's a gap though. There's a gap in between the black eight and the side pocket. This shot. Difficulty level to get to the left side of the purple five. A nine and a half. Given the circumstances. Is he going to try and find the gap between the eight and the right side pocket? He is. Oh, look at this. Look at this. What a shot. That is the shot of the match for Albin in the context of where we're at. That was a beauty. It will help him forget that missed six ball. Beautiful shot. The angle. That is what's key. So he's playing three, yeah? You know, do you always make sure you hit the third? Are you happy just getting that line? And even if it lands on the right? No, I like getting to the third if I can. I like it for reference. It'll slide a little bit. Nice and clean in the heart of the pocket. Smooth operator. He's back. It's been a beautiful match so far this. We've had everything. We've had a little three-pack out the gate. We've had push-out mistakes. Some good safeties from Omar. And the odd miss to make it exciting. Best of 25 racks at the start has been distilled to the best of seven. We'll probably play a similar shot here. Spin it off two rails. Back out for the eight ball in the same pocket as the six. Straight or angled. It's all good. I think that's okay. I think he can. He can? I think so, yeah. I think he can kind of just roll it in. Whoa. And leave a thinner nine than he would have liked. Yeah, but then he needs to hit it in the fat side of the pocket. If he overcuts it a little bit. Yeah, I mean, obviously. Well, he might play it hard. Yeah, let's just. I don't know. He's fifth break and run out of this final. He started with three in succession and now he's produced two on the bounce. At the very heart of this final when they were needed most. Is he starting to get on top? Well, he leads. 8-7 line. You can see there with his cue action sights out of his left eye. Don't think this is going to be good, you know. I think this is going to be an easy one railer. No. No? No. Rail first is not on. Are you sure? I'm sitting right behind the shot. That's what I mean. Give me my glasses. Attention, please. No, I don't think it's on. Massey. And the difficulty here is that the ball that he wants to clear, the seven, is so far away. Yep, he called it. He's cleared the seven. What a good chance now for Albin. More than a good chance. It's vital. Essential. With the utmost importance to get this. Remember, Omar could have played the safety. He decided to put Albin back. Yeah, it sounds like somebody's had a few too many sherverts to me. So I'm sure security are taking care of that, as Albin. It's been a nice rack, this timely rack as well. Wow, you said it right. As if that six never happened. He has won four racks on the trot, but it was vital that he regained his early form. Albin Auschen now leads 11-9. Two more to reclaim the world title. Five percent speed here. Oh, nice. Wow, look at the split. Does the six pass the nine? If it doesn't, it could be a combo. Also goes in the bottom right pocket as well. So we'll see how this unfolds. Wasn't the best of breaks regarding the cue ball. Unless he played the cup break, we'll give him the benefit of the doubt. The ball, just pop the ball and you're on the hill. Cue ball will come down. No problems. It went in the heart of the pocket. What a performance at the latter stages of this match. After missing that sixth ball, Omar has not really been seen. He's on the hill. How about this from Albin Auschen? The performance of a champion elects maybe. He needs one more and he's going to be world champion in the nine ball division for the second time in his life. Player, an easy positional shot now for the six. The eight is separated. There you see, just a little stop shot. Dreaded six, but don't worry. No, he's good here. He's good. This will go in nice and soft. Well, we'll see where the six goes in what side of the pocket. Job done. This is it. What a feeling when you're still out there, but effectively, you know you're over the line. He took a deep breath then. He knows he's about to win the tournament. Ball is in and Auschen is champion of the world. Is that okay? What a performance that was. Congratulations from our chief referee, John Lehman. Staying with tradition. He's on the table. He won the championship league pool here in Milton Keynes a couple of months ago. But this, this is the big one. And what a performance. Let's not forget, while he ran out to the end, quite a comfortable winner. It wasn't like that during the match. He was nine seven down. He won the last six racks. Fortitude from Alvin Auschen. And I'll tell you what, you two guys, Alex Lowley and Carl Boy is in your capacity as captain and vice captain of the Moscone Cup team. You've got a good one here. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for the Matchroom Pool World Pool Championship official presentation. And to ensure we go through this nice and smoothly, ladies and gentlemen, round of applause. Give her some love and appreciation. The managing director of Matchroom Multisport, Emily Fraser. Yeah, a big thank you to Emily and Matchroom for three fantastic pool tournaments in succession. It's back where it belongs. It's been a brilliant tournament, hasn't it, everyone? Emily, the fans have been absolutely magnificent today. We've had the World Cup, the World Pool Masters, and then we've had the big one, the World Pool Championship. You yourself have worked so hard, but you must be very proud. Well, I just want to thank every single person in here that's bought a ticket in here tonight. You have made this atmosphere in here and it's been fantastic for the players. So thank you to you all. It's fantastic. But what an incredible event we've had. We've had such a fantastic team on the ground with 16 tables, 128 players coming in. The format's been really well thought out and just so many great people here on site getting the event together and the high calibre of players that we've had. I mean, a huge respect to Omar. He always plays the circuit. He's always at every event, knocking the door on the Matchroom pool events, not always quite getting there. But Omar, you have just proven why you should be at these Matchroom events. You are in the final, second place. Albin, a few days ago, I saw you slumped in your chair after that match against Roberto Gomez. And I think what was going through your head was, oh no, please not again. I don't want to be back up there as a co-presenter. I want to be here winning World Championships. Is that what was going through your head? Yeah, definitely. I think after the loss against Roberto, I thought, OK, what's going to happen next? But then actually, I just swallowed it down and came strong the next day. And now I'm here. Yeah, I mean, I think you've shown your class and you've got better as the games have gone on. And you're a worthy champion. And Albin, you must be really proud of yourself. Yeah, of course. Had a very good start in this match and a very good end also. But the middle section was a little bit rough for me. But heads up to Omar. He played a great match and I'm very happy that he went for the one ball. Omar, the beauty of World Pool is we've got so many phenomenal players, literally from all over the world. You've done your country, your family and your friends really proud of this tournament. How do you feel? I'm feeling great. You know, it's just the final is like all the players know it's tough. You know, one miss ball, like you got to lose that much. Albin plays great. I have a couple of mistakes, but I'm totally proud. Like all over the Middle East, I know a lot of people, they are so happy. So and I'm excited and so proud about that. Absolutely. The good news is, the good news is, Omar, you know, this sport is going from strength to strength. There's some huge plans over the next few months and years. So these are big ranking points for you. And the aim and the determination is to make these rankings crucial. Weekly, monthly, everyone's going to be looking. So this is a great start for you. So you should be very, very proud. Everybody, Omar Al-Shaheed. Finally, Albin, the two time world champion. You're not only a world champion again, you're also the new world number one. So it's been a pretty, pretty good week for you, hasn't it? Yeah, I'm quite speechless now. I didn't think for one second about the ranking or anything else or the check or. But of course, when you're finished, you're thinking about it. And it's a very nice surprise. Yeah, I mean, as I said, it could it could have some huge bearings going forward, you know, in the world of pool. And also it could seal, could Alexi say, your place in the Moscone Cup. But the US Open, we've got the US Open to come, Albin. We've got the Moscone Cup to come. But right now, let's focus on what it's all about. The World Pool Championship. Albin Oshin, the World Pool Champion. Albin Oshin is the 2021 World Pool Champion. So let's get that updated role of honor. There we go. That is some lesson confirmation. The new world champion. Albin Oshin, 2021 champion. And as I mentioned earlier about rankings and the importance of these going forward in the world of pool. And here we go. He's there. So he's not only the world champion, he's the world number one. And I'll tell you, if we're talking about the Moscone Cup, hasn't Alex Lely got some decisions to make? Because that is dominated by Europe. But Albin Oshin is the world champion, the world number one. He's had a phenomenal week and he deserves it. Well, what a fantastic few days we've had here. Phenomenal pool. All 128 players have done themselves proud. You've all done yourselves proud tonight. So thank you very much. We've had three phenomenal tournaments in the last few weeks. And we are coming back very soon for the US Open in September. But for now, a very good night.