Sniegocki claims his first Euro-Tour victory

Both Polish players managed to win their semi-finals and made the final of the Dynamic Billard Bosnia & Hercegovina Open an all Polish affair. Kaplan defeated Stephan Cohen (FRA) by the skin of his teeth with 8:7. Cohen could have won the semi-final but he missed a 6-ball at 7:7. Sniegocki got the better of Daryl Peach (GBR) with 8:5 in the other semi-final. All spotlights were now on the two Polish players who would fight it out on the final table. Sniegocki got the far better start. He seemed to be much fitter than Kaplan who seemed to be a bit tired. After five racks the scoreboard showed a 4:1 lead for Sniegocki. Though Kaplan had a longer break between his semi-final and the final match, Sniegocki seemed to be more "in the zone". One of Kaplan's problems was his break shot. He somehow could not make a ball on the break anymore. Whenever he left a possible situation for Sniegocki, he got punished by Sniegocki either running out or allowing him with a pretty good safety position to the table. But Kaplan found his way back into the match. He took a time-out and refocussed. Suddenly, the distance between the two was shrunk to one rack only. Sniegocki was still leading 6:5 but he could feel Kaplan fighting his way back into the match. And when the pressure increased, Sniegocki also made mistakes. In the 12th rack, he tried to play a safety with the 1-ball but accidentally pocketed the 6-ball when doing so. The position of the balls was bad and according to the rules, Kaplan had the choice to either accepting the table or giving the shot back to Sniegocki. Kaplan put Sniegocki back to the table and forced another error onto him. Sniegocki committed the error and Kaplan had the chance to tie the match at 6:6. But instead of leveling the match, Kaplan missed an easy 5-ball and left it hanging over the pocket for Sniegocki. What a drama after that terrific comeback! That serious lapse brought Sniegocki on the hill with 7:5 and his own break shot coming up. As if there has not yet been enough drama between the two friends, Sniegocki scratched on his break shot and Kaplan came back to the table with ball in hand. He cleared the table to turn the score to 6:7. The tension could not have been higher at that point in time. The audience was captured by the high class performance of these two players. In the next rack, Kaplan broke and ended up dry with no ball being pocketed. All balls were nicely spread and Sniegocki had an easy shot at the 1-ball. That was the end for Kaplan. Sniegocki ran all balls and claimed his first Euro-Tour title, winning the final match with 8:6.

 

Semi-Finals
Stephane Cohen (FRA)	v	Tomasz Kaplan (POL)	7:8
Daryl Peach (GBR)	v	Mateusz Sniegocki (POL)	5:8
The Final Match
Tomasz Kaplan (POL)	v	Mateusz Sniegocki (POL)	8:6