Friday, February 11, 2011: The first round in stage 2 of the event is over and half of the 32 best players here were eliminated.
Only three out of the nine Top Ten ranked Euro-Tour players who attended the tournament are still hoping for the title here in Leader Club Billard in Paris. Among the 16 winners is Radoslaw Babica from Poland. He defeated the Spaniard Juan Carlos Exposito
considerably clear with 9-3. "I was lucky in that match" was the surprising
statement from Poland's top class pool player when being asked about the match.
"Juan made two easy mistakes in the beginning and had no luck at all after
that. He really struggled. It was enough for me to run two racks only from the
1-ball to the 9-ball. The rest of the match, I took advantage of his mistakes."
Babica does not have too much confidence in his own game at the moment. "This
is the case since quite some time now. I only get to play about 60% of my
ability right now."
France's last hope Stephan
Cohen also managed to sneak in the field of the final 16 players by eliminating
Germany's Dominic Jentsch with 9-8. He still holds the French flag high in the
Dynamic France Open. The match started out with both players being a bit
nervous. At 3-3, they both got into their game and did not make any mistakes
until the score was 7-7. There, Jentsch had a lucky shot and went on the hill
with 8-7. But Lady Luck was very fair in this match, giving a fluke shot back
to Cohen to tie the match hill-hill 8-8. "The crowd was of good help for me.
When you play well, they can make you play even better. But when you play not
good they can put quite some pressure on you", Cohen says. At 8-8, Jentsch
broke the balls but could not make any on his break shot. Some safety shots
followed with Cohen starting to pocket balls. He missed the 6-ball but left a
tough shot for Jentsch. The German in turn also missed the 6-ball and Cohen
cleared the table and made his way to the Final 16.
Last 16 matchups:
Karl Boyes v Mattey Ullah
Kristoffer Mindreboe v Carlo Dalmatin
Radoslaw Babica v Scott Higgins
Stephan Cohen v Konstantin Stepanov
Jayson Shaw v Nick van den Berg
The event is hosted by the European Governing Body for Pool, the European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) and organized by International Billiard Promotion (IBP). For further information and reference please go to the event website www.eurotouronline.eu or contact our press office.
