Player: Joshua Filler
Event: 2024 World Pool Masters
Location: Hildesheim, Germany
Date: April 28, 2024



Perhaps the two most dominant tournament players in the world met at the final of the 2024 World Pool Masters. At the time, Joshua Filler was fresh of winning the 2023 Mosconi Cup MVP, the 2024 Derby City All-Around (including the 9-ball and bank titles), and the Derby 10-ball Challenge. Fedor Gorst, meanwhile, was high off the Derby one-pocket win and was on his way to winning the WPA World 9-Ball Championship and the U.S. Open 9-Ball Championship.

The World Pool Masters final was a race-to-13, with the two titans battling through the early racks. At 5-4, Gorst banked a ball in but had to play safe without a workable angle on the 6 ball.

With solid control of both the object ball and cue ball, he left the 8 ball as a blocker and plenty of distance for his opponent.

But as commentator Jeremy Jones noted, the 9 ball was a big ball, considering its proximity to the bottom left corner. Filler immediately sized up the opportunity to claim the rack with a jump.

With a fuller hit than required by a cut shot into the top left corner, the German superstar popped the cue ball over the 8 and into the 6. The object ball shot into the headrail and back down toward the 9. Hitting the long rail at the perfect angle, the 6 kicked the 9 into the bottom left corner for the win, while the cue ball hit both rails near the top right corner before rolling to a stop near the head spot.

Though he was able to knot the match at 5-5, Filler eventually fell to Gorst in a hill-hill thriller. With both players racking up such titles, however, it’s hard to think they won’t meet in a final soon enough.

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