Ouschan Magic Sees Austria Through World Cup Round One

Team Austria put in one of the most impressive performances so far in the PartyPoker.net World Cup of Pool as they swept aside Vietnam 8 – 1 at the Outland Nightclub in Rotterdam.

The pairing of Kempter and Ouschan looked in excellent form throughout and will be relishing their Round 2 match with Belgium tomorrow night.

Kempter is one of the improving players on the European circuit with some notable scalps to his name. He played with Jasmin's brother Albin in this event last year, but the 22 year-old from Klagenfurt's achievements made her a certainty for Team Austria.

She came third in the WPA World Straight Pool Championship, a men's event, earlier this year and had a great run at the World Tenball in Manila.

The Austrians moved into a swift 3-0 lead before a nervous looking Vietnamese duo took the fourth. However they lost the table with a dry break and Ouschan and Kempter punished them as they confidently cleared the table to move into an ominous 4-1 lead.

Another dry break, this time from Ouschan, gave the Vietnamese a chance but despite a great jump shot to pocket the 1 ball, they were forced to play it safe.

Vietnam made a great two rail escape from a tight snooker but scratched to leave ball in hand for Austria who ran out to move 5-1 ahead.

From the break, the Austrians trotted through the table to go to 6-1 and a golden break from Ouschan, as the nine was kicked up table in the next, put them on the hill.

They made no slip ups and cleared from the break to take the match by a convincing 8-1 scoreline.

Earlier, Poland looked to be a quiet threat in the top half of the draw as Radoslaw Babica and Mateusz Sniegocki performed well in overcoming Thailand 8-3 in their first round match.

The Thai duo of Nitiwat Kanjanasri and Dechawat Poomjang were sound technically but perhaps a little naïve in their shot selection and the Poles took full advantage to steam into a fast lead at 5-1.

Wearing matching black outfits and white shoes, Thailand steadied themselves in the seventh game to move to 2-5 and looked to be gaining in confidence as they ran through the table to reduce the deficit.

Poland though reasserted themselves in the next rack and Sniegocki potted a long range 9 ball to take his team to 6-3.

A 2/9 fluked combination took the Poles to the hill at 7-3 as the Thais stared defeat in the face.

The Poles crowned a very confident display as they ran the final rack from the break to advance to the second round where they will play Qatar or Germany.

In the first match of the afternoon session, 2007 Semi-finalists Canada, consisting of Tyler Edey and Edwin Montal, made their way through to the second round as they had too much for an out-of-sorts France.
 
With European 9 ball champion Stephan Cohen in partnership with a sickening Vincent Facquet struggling throughout, the Canadians could afford to make the odd error and still maintain control.
 
They can now look forward to a second round match against England who looked good in disposing of Malta yesterday.
 
Things started badly for France early as the opening shot of the match as Stephan Cohen came unstuck on the break as despite potting two balls as the third failed to cross the headstring, handing the table to the Canadians. With the balls nicely spread, Montal and Edey cleared to take the opener.
 
They shared the next two before a bad positional shot from Montal lost the momentum for Canada and he played a nice safety separating the white and the 6 ball and Facquet's escape left the table open. The Canadians cleared to regain the lead at 3-2.
 
Canada won the next two for a 5-2 lead but France took the next two in what was a dogged encounter. They won the tenth to square things at 5-5 and looked good for the lead before Facquet's pot on the 8 ball left his team mate with a very difficult 9 using the rest.
 
He missed and left it near enough to the pocket for the Canadians to retake the lead at 6-5.
 
Facquet messed up as he ran out of position with just three balls on the table and Cohen's kick shot was hit too hard to drop as the Canadians had an elementary run out to reach the hill.
 
8-5 was the final score as a carom off the 2 ball from Montal, with the 9 hanging over the pocket, secured victory.