Block sent to loser's side
Thursday, 01 September 2011: In a match that was characterized by a lot of tactical and safety play, Vitaly Pavlukhin (RUS) defeated Ignacio Block (ARG) with 11:7.
It could be noticed already in the beginning of the match that both players did not want to take any risk in their respective first appearance in the World Junior 9-ball Championship. Until the score was 3:3, tactical play was mostly seen on the feature table. Pavlukhin won another rack to take a 4:3 lead over Block. In the 8th rack, Block looked like tying the score again when he made a fatal error, missing an easy 6-ball. As if that was not enough, he also missed an easy 8-ball in the next rack, allowing his opponent a 5:3 lead over him. But the player from Argentina did not surrender. He struggled and tried to get back into the game which he finally achieved, making the score 5:5. Then, as if history was repeated in the match, Block again missed easy shots and again Pavlukhin benefitted from it, getting a two-rack lead over Block at 7:5. A time-out was taken by Pavlukhin right after that. When the players came back, a shot-clock was introduced to the match since both players took exceptional long time to execute their shots. That was the turn of the tide for Block. He seemed to not be able to adjust to the new conditions while Pavlukhin continued to stay focussed with his performance. In the end, Pavlukhin won 11:7 over a strong Block who simply made too many mistakes in the end.
Other notable results include Brianna Miller (USA), last year's silver medallist, losing her opening match with 6:9 over Oliwia Czuprynska (POL). Wojciech Szewczyk (POL) unexpectedly lost to Alain Da Costa (FRA) with 9:11. With a marvellous comeback, Marc Bijsterbosch (NED) won his match over Danny Olson (USA) with 11:10.
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