Final 2007 Eurotour Stop Underway

Niels Feijen

The Dynamic Costa del Sol is underway. This is the final Eurotour stop of 2007 with a total prizemoney of €40.000 in the beautiful city of Benalmadena at the Costa del Sol in the vicinity of Malaga. The venue is the Torrequebrada hotel. All in all plenty of reasons to participate, just what 266 players from over 30 countries have decided to do.

The usual suspects are there once more: Souquet, Feijen, Chamat, Peach, Engert, Majid amongst others. But as history has proven, name and standing are worth little in respect to entering the Eurotour winners'circle. The 3-game-break innings with tapped racks and additionally, three balls needing to pass the head string work as an equalizer. So, a lot of nerve and luck is needed to penetrate the Eurotour brackets.

Fridays are bloody on the Eurotour. The field is reduced to 32 players through a nerve-wrecking and physically draining double elimination format. When going through the losers bracket a player has to win five consecutive matches, often coming to conclusion in the early morning hours. The last 32 play on Saturday in a single elimination format and a less hectic atmosphere.

The European fan's eyes will be on the team Europe players for the upcoming Mosconi Cup, how is their form? Stepanov, Feijen, Souquet and the reigning world champion Daryl Peach. Until the world pool championships Stepanov had an unconvincing six months, but his run to the last 16 in the WC's was a proof of form from the young Russian. There is little doubt that Peach, Feijen and Souquet will bring their A-game to the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Tony Drago has chosen to prepare for the Mosconi cup in Club-8, Amsterdam as he did not want to strain his body by too much traveling.

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