Appleton, Hohmann, Immonen, Morra all in the last 16 at the Predator ‘Dynamite’ Open in Romania

This first week-end of september marks the second edition of the Predator "Dynamite" Open in Brasov, Romania. The man himself after whom the event has been name - Darren Appleton - has brought along with him many international players who are on their way to the World 9-Ball Championships next week in Qatar. These top stars are treated like royalty and Romanians' passion for pool is here for all to see. Most of the international players are in Brasov for the first time and fell in love with this beautiful city.

During day one, we witnessed packed crowds from the 64-player double elimination round. With players from 14 countries at the start of the even, Romanians made their countrymen and themselves proud by placing 4 players into the final 16. Romanian champion Ladanyi Ioan looked very solid, along the way he beat Russian star Ruslan Chinahov to qualify. Euro tour regular Babken Melkonyan came through beating the former european star Sandor Tot and last year's runner up Ciprian Gandac. Later on Gandac did make it from the losers' bracket in a hard thought battle (7-6) against Ferdi from Turkey. Alexandru Cotescu, after losing to Darren Appleton 8-1 bounced back to qualify with a 7-1 scoreline.

The biggest surprise of the tournament so far was Turkey's player Saki Kanatlar beating the likes of Jason Klatt to get his place into the final 16. In the end, 13 out of the 16 seeded players qualified besides the two Marian from Romania and Jason Klatt Canada.

Today promises to be a great day for Romanian pool and the invited starts. 16 players remain representing 10 countries to make this a true international field. Exciting match-ups today. The single elimination rounds will be played to a finish, with races to 10 and a race to 11 for the final match.

Here's the line-up for the last 16 starting at 11am CET:

Darren Appleton v Nick Van Den Berg
Thorsten Hohmann v Saki Kanatlar
Imran Majid v Ciprian Gandac
Mika Immonen v Pedra Ionut
Nick Ekonopoulos v Nick Malaj
John Morra v Alexandru Cotescu
Daryl Peach v Denis Grabe
Babken Melkonyan v Ruslan Chinahov