The winner of the Dynamic Billard Treviso Open 2017 is 16-year-old Wiktor Zielinski (POL). In the final match, he outclassed his opponent Mario He (AUT) 9:1.
The final event of the 2017 Euro-Tour series has a sensational winner. He is probably the youngest and also fastest player to ever win a Euro-Tour event. So far, Zielinski’s best achievement in the Euro-Tour was a 5th place finish in Albufeira, Portugal, earlier this year. Here in Treviso, Zielinski started his quest with a 9:5 victory over his teammate Piotr Ostrowski (POL). His next victim was Gentjan Gega (ALB) 9:6. Then, he was defeated by Stefan Huber (AUT) 6:9 and sent to the loser’s side. Zielinski finished Jakub Koniar (SVK) 9:5 to get to the single elimination stage. In the round of the last 32 players, Zielinski wiped the floor with Abdulrahman Alammar (KSA) 9:1. Then, he outplayed local hero Daniele Corrieri (ITA) who had also played a strong tournament until then. In the quarter-final, Zielinski eliminated former World Champion Daryl Peach (GBR) 9:5. Said Peach on Facebook: „I lost 9:5 to Wiktor Zielinski from Poland in the quarterfinal so that’s a 5th place finish for me. He played excellent and I didn’t see a shot until 5:0 down, I battled back but it was a lot to ask. Watch out for this kid, he is 16 years old and an unreal talent in the game…. yeah another up and coming star from European pool.“ Peach was dead right with this estimation. In the semi-final, Zielinski took down Denis Grabe (EST) 9:2, winning nine consecutive racks against the Estonian. Then he got to the final match against Mario He. The Austrian also played pretty strong so far and he had an impressive list of opponents who he had taken down here in Treviso this time. Maksim Dudanets (RUS), Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz, Niels Feijen (NED) and Eklent Kaci (ALB) were all ousted by He. The expectations for the final match were a bit in favour of Mario He since he was the more experienced player by far. So far, he has achieved one victory, one runner-up and 4 third places on the Euro-Tour. Today, the final match was a one man show by Zielinski only. He demolished Mario He 9:1 in a final match that only lasted 23 minutes !! Probably that was the fastest final in the history of the Euro-Tour. „I practiced very hard for this“, stated Zielinski after the match, „ and I’m so happy now that it is hard for me to express my happiness in words“, he added. This victory is for the record book in two aspects: the youngest winner and the fastest final match ever.
As for the final rankings of 2017, Ralf Souquet (GER) has taken the lead position over from David Alcaide (ESP) who dropped three places. Souquet is the only player who has won two events in 2017. The two Austrian powerhouses Mario He and Albin Ouschan are right on Souquet’s heels.
That concludes the coverage from the Dynamic Billard Treviso Open 2017. The next event to be covered will be the Dynamic Billard Italian Open in March 2018.
The event was hosted by the European Governing Body for Pool, the European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) and organized by International Billiard Promotion (IBP). For further information and reference please go to the federation website www.eurotouronline.com visit us on Facebook or check out our youtube channel for regular news clips or contact our press office press@epbf.com.
Left to right: A. Alammar, A. Ouschan & D. Corrieri
A totally unheralded player, Abdulrahman Alammar (KSA) squeaked past #17 ranked player Mateusz Sniegocki (POL) with 9:8 after a tremendous comeback.
It was not the first opponent from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia today for Sniegocki. In his first match he already met Hassan Alqahtani who also made the long trip from the middle eastern country to come to Italy and challenge the European pool elite. In that match, Sniegocki was already warned since he had a 5:2 lead over Alqahtani and just made it over the finish line, taking the match by a whisker with 9:8. Then he met Alammar, Alqahtani’s teammate. One more time, Sniegocki looked like the sure winner, leading 6:2 after eight racks. But Alammar demonstrated high class pool and really surprised the audience on site and at the computer screens since the match was streamed live on facebook as well. Alammar pulled back rack after rack from Sniegocki and made the match exciting again. He even managed to get on the hill first, taking an 8:7 lead over the Polish. Then, Sniegocki levelled that at 8:8 with a combination shot 5-9 into the corner pocket. Now the pressure was on for both opponents with Alammar’s break shot coming up. He broke the rack and had two balls down but no shot on the 2-ball which was the ball on. A safety exchange followed with Alammar committing a foul shot giving ball in hand to Sniegocki. The layout on the table was everything else but easy with the 3-ball behind hidden behind the 4-ball. Sniegocki tried to play a weird position for the 3-ball and failed. All he could do then was leaving a tough shot for Alammar. The player from Saudi Arabia executed a brilliant safety shot on the 3-ball, opening the problem and hiding the cue ball frozen behind the 8-ball on the other end of the table. Sniegocki attempted a bank shot on the 3-ball but completely missed it. With ball in hand, Alammar went on and ran the rack, winning the match 9:8 after a furious comeback. He will now face Tim De Ruyter (NED) who defeated Sebastian Staab (GER) 9:3, in the winner’s qualification round while Sniegocki needs to take the detour over the loser’s side.
Other remarkable results from today include local hero Daniele Corrieri (ITA) taking the cake 9:8 against former World 9-Ball Champion Daryl Peach (GBR) in the same round. Also in winner’s round 2, Stefan Huber (AUT) totally unexpected smashed Alexander Kazakis (GRE) 9:0! What a bitter doughnut for Kazakis that was! Huber’s fellow countryman Albin Ouschan (AUT) brought his match home in winner’s round, winning 9:8 over Cyriel Ledoux (NED). The Dutch was really unlucky here since he had the break in rack 17. However, he came up dry with no balls down, leaving a shot on the 1-ball for Ouschan. With all his coolness and experience, the Austrian powerhouse cleared the table and took the match even under the highest pressure possible.
Tomorrow, the Dynamic Billard Treviso Open will continue at 09:00 CET with matches from loser’s round 2. The last 32 players single elimination matches will begin at 21:00 CET.
Every day, one match from the events will be shown LIVE on the Facebook page of the EPBF for free. All Facebook users may check out the high standard of quality which is provided for all the events and see what the Kozoom members receive all the time. You can see all the matches live via www.kozoom.com who stream the whole event on 16 tables on the internet LIVE. The FB live matches are announced on the EPBF Facebook page every day. Results and schedules can be found at www.eurotouronline.com so why not come and check out all the LIVE action of the Dynamic Billard Treviso Open.
The event will be hosted by the European Governing Body for Pool, the European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) and organized by International Billiard Promotion (IBP). For further information and reference please go to the federation website www.eurotouronline.com visit us on Facebook or check out our youtube channel for regular news clips or contact our press office press@epbf.com.
The fifth annual Joy Billiards World Chinese 8 Ball Masters is set to be the most cosmopolitan and competitive edition yet.
64 players from 28 different countries spread across all six continents will travel to the North East Chinese city of Qinhuangdao aiming for a slice of the $110,000USD (approx just under £90,000) total prize fund.
2017's final line up has been determined after months of qualifying in the host nation and beyond, as well as a selection process by the tournament organisers for the chosen wildcards.
The history of this event has been dominated by two players. England's Gareth Potts, a four time World Champion in the English Pool discipline, won the inaugural championship in 2013 and then successfully defended it the following year.
Potts' streak was ended in 2015 when home cueist Yang Fan (pictured above) beat him in the Last 4 before then completing the job in the final. Yang proved it was no fluke by retaining the title in 2016.
However, as the popularity and profile of Chinese 8 Ball increases globally, the standard, and the potential possibility of a different champion has risen too.
Potts and Yang will indeed be back in their attempts to claim a hat-trick, but both will face fierce opposition from a number of multi-discipline Cuesports stars with significant career accolades.
5 times US Open 9 Ball Champion Shane Van Boening, recently signed up by Joy Billiards, has shown his commitment and dedication to Chinese 8 Ball by having a table installed at his home venue in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Van Boening's fellow countryman, Corey Deuel, will also be representing the USA after coming through a qualifier held in New Jersey at the back end of last year. The former Mosconi Cup winner is familiar to playing snooker (competed in Q-School and has been a national champion), and makes a return to China having appeared here 12 months ago.
In fact, a number of well known names from the international American Pool circuit will feature, but the highlight entry will surely be reigning WPA World 9 Ball Champion Albin Ouschan of Austria, who is fresh from becoming the Mosconi Cup MVP before Christmas.
It will be Ouschan's debut in this tournament, but he has history of success in the country after winning the prestigious China Open 9 Ball in 2015.
The world of English 8 Ball Pool will also be handsomely represented.
Reigning BI World Champion Liam Dunster (Scotland) will try his hand, whilst 2015 IPA World Champion Jack Whelan (England) – who has some previous Chinese 8 Ball experience, advanced as the UK qualifier. French small table legend Christophe Lambert has also been invited to make his debut.
India's Dharminder Singh Lilly has a wealth of experience in different formats; only a couple of months ago he became the IBSF World Seniors Snooker Champion in Qatar.
Of these 32 'Overseas' entries, 19 will be making their debut in the venue stages of this competition. Such is the expansion of this cuesport into new territories, qualification events were held in Argentina, Canada, England, Morocco, South Africa and the USA. To read up on some of these events, please visit our 'Professional Pool' column here.
The other half of the field is made up of players from the host nation.
Shi Hanqing, the reigning World Chinese 8 Ball Champion, will be looking to go one better than his runners-up place in 2014 and take his first Masters trophy. Shi is the only Chinese player to have featured in every edition.
The national ranked Number 1, Zheng Yubo, (beaten finalist in 2015 to Yang) is also likely to be one of the pre-tournament favourites.
Chinese 8 Ball is somewhat a hybrid of a number of different Cuesports rules and equipment. Around 80 million people play in China, with table manufacturer Joy Billiards having 3000 clubs in the country alone.
For more information on the sport, and how to buy equipment, please visit Joy Billiards' new English language website here.
The Cue View aim to keep you updated throughout the event. Please like our Facebook page, where we hope to post live stream links and scores.
CHINESE QUALIFIERS
Li Xiaopeng, Dong Yi, Shen Chongyang, Dai Yong, Wu Hao, Wang Peng, Li Hui, Yang Fan, Liu Yang
Xie Zhaohui, Liu Xin, Wan Tongle, Xi Hongyu, Zhang Guanghao, Xi Shouxin, Zhang Daowei, Zhao
Ruliang, Yin Hongxing, Wu Zhenyu, Xia Hongyan, Shi Hanqing, Wang Yun, Lu Xin, Fan Zhisong,
Zhang Kunpeng, Gong Haifeng, Chen Qiang, Li Bo, Zhao Yunbiao, Yu Ting, Zheng Yubo, Li Heng
INTERNATIONAL QUALIFIERS
AFRICA – Velly Diamond (South Africa), Richard Halliday (South Africa), Mohamed Essaid (Morocco)
