Born | Laç, Albania | 29 January 1999
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Sport country | Albania |
Best finish | Semi finals 2017 WPA World Nine-ball Championship |
Tournament wins | |
World Champion | Ten-ball ( 2021, 2023) |
Eklent Kaçi (born January 29, 1999), also known as Klenti Kaçi is an Albanian professional pool player. Kaçi won the WPA World Ten-ball Championship in 2021 and 2023 and reached the semi-finals of the 2017 WPA World Nine-ball Championship. He has been the top-ranked player in the world of 9-ball pool. [1]
Kaçi started playing pool at the age of eight. [2] He has won the Albanian Snooker championships in addition to national pool championships, even though he never played snooker prior to his Federation asking him to join the event.[ citation needed] Kaçi made his first European championship in 2013, for ten-ball, qualifying for the main knockout, and being eliminated in the round of 64. [3] In 2017, Kaçi made the semi-finals of the 2017 WPA World Nine-ball Championship, losing 11–6 to Roland Garcia. [4]
The following year, at 18 years of age, Kaçi won the Aramith Masters, [5] and became world number one later that year. [6] At the 2018 WPA World Nine-ball Championship, Kaçi (as world number 1), lost to 17-year-old Robbie Capito 11–10 in the last 32. [7] Kaçi won two events on the Euro Tour, reaching Euro Tour number one in 2018. He won the 2018 Treviso Open, and the following season the 2019 Austria Open.