Kelly Fisher has enjoyed the addition of the Predator Pro Billiard Series to the international calendar; the Brit has won both previous Women’s events on the series.
On Tuesday, she began her efforts to win a third as the Women’s division of the Predator Germany Open began at ATLANTIC Hotel Galopprennbahn, Bremen. Staged alongside the Open event, the Women’s division has equal added money of €45,400 and an international field including Austria’s Jasmin Ouschan and Alfa Las Vegas Open runner-up Brittany Bryant of Canada.
Fisher’s first match was against Sukmawaty Facquet of Indonesia, on the winners’ side of the backets after a bye through the first round. The Alfa Las Vegas Women’s Open champion was shooting sharp and gave Facquet very few chances at the table in the opening set, save for some difficult shots on the 1 which weren’t taken after push outs by Fisher. An attempted bank of the 9 ball went wrong for Facquet in the first game of the second set and just 20 minutes later Fisher had completed a 4-0, 4-0 shutout.
Ouschan, also beginning on the winners’ side, suffered a surprise Sudden Death shootout defeat by Katrina Wan of Hong Kong. Taking the first set 4-1, Ouschan was held to a 3-3 tie after six games of the second set and it was Wan who was first to escape a series of safeties around the 8 ball to take it to shootout. Both players made three of their initial four shots but it was Wan who prevailed in Sudden Death when Ouschan missed in her seventh innings.
In the Open division, Tuesday’s play was reserved for the losers’ side of the bracket. After an opening round defeat to friend and fellow Spanish player Jose Alberto Delgado, Jonas Souto was sent home after a shootout defeat by Hong Kong’s Ip Tung Pong. Souto won the first set 4-0 but the second set finished 4-1 to Tung Pong, who won the shootout 5-4 at Sudden Death.
Poland’s Konrad Juszczyszyn is also heading home after defeat by a player from Hong Kong. Yip Kin Ling lost in the first round to Vincent Gomez but a 2-0 win against Juszczyszyn, a former EuroTour winner and 2018 European 9-Ball Champion, means the Asian player progresses to face Jani Siekkinen next.
Oliver Ortmann’s tournament continues after he defeated Richard Halliday of South Africa, and Finnish junior player Riku Romppanen claimed victory against Thorben Brunnen. Play resumes at 11am local time on Wednesday as the winners’ side taking stage in the Open event. The Women’s division will see matches from both sides of the bracket.
The first day in Antalya of the Dynamic Billard Antalya Open 2019 started sunny as expected. Most players of the first round matches were on time for the beginning of their competition. In the first round, Nick Malai (GRE) and Marcel Price (GBR) had the toughest challenges. Both of them won their opening matches with 9:8 over their respective opponents which took a lot of energy out of them at such an early time of the day.
As the day continued, more remarkable matches could be witnessed. In the first winner’s round, Nick Malai took down Ruslan Chinakhov (RUS) surprisingly clear with 9:1 and sent him to the loser’s side of the bracket. Jan Rempe (NED), young player from the dutch contingency, managed to overpower Fedor Gorst (RUS) with 9:5 in the same round. Jani Siekkinen (FIN) wasted no time with Alex Montpellier (FRA) wiping the floor with him with 9:0. Siekkinen’s teammate Jani Uski (FIN) also won his match against Mateusz Sniegocki (POL) with 9:7. One of the two big clashes in the first winner’s round was the all British match between Mark Gray and Darren Appleton. Both players have earned their merits in the past and it was clear that the one with the better daily form would probably succeed over the other. Additionally, Appleton had been absent for a long time and just started his Euro-Tour play again last tournament in Klagenfurt, Austria, while Gray has been a regular on the tour for many years now. Today, the match went in favour of Appleton since Gray had no break at all. Appleton took him down 9:5 and Gray stated on his facebook page later: „Horrible game that lost 9-5 to Darren Appleton. Better player undoubtedly won. Break killed me but didn’t feel good so good luck to Daz… Granite back to the beach!!“ The other „big match“ in that round was the encounter between Pijus Labutis (LTU) and Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz (ESP). That match was controlled by the Spaniard and won with 9:6 by Sanchez-Ruiz.
The Dynamic Billard Antalya Open 2019 will continue tomorrow morning at 09:00 local time with matches from winner’s round 2.
Every day, up to two matches will be streamed LIVE over the EPBF Facebook page and on the EPBF YouTube channel. Check for updates and announcements.
The Dynamic Billard Antalya Open are played in the Limak Atlantis Resort in Belek, Turkey, on up to 20 tables which are all streamed LIVE throughout the whole event. In order to be able to follow all the action LIVE, premium membership can be obtained at www.kozoom.com. Once a premium membership is held, all events for the respective period of time can be viewed LIVE. Additionally, a huge video gallery is contained in the website.
The event is 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 or visit us on Facebook for regular news clips or contact our press office press@epbf.com.
Matches began on day two of the International 9-Ball Open Tuesday at 10:30 AM and the featured match was between 3 time VNEA National Champion Danny Olson and European Mosconi Cup member Alex Kazakis. The match went back and forth until the score was 4-4 and then Kazakis caught a gear that took him to a 10-5 lead, needing only one more rack for the win. Olson then found his momentum and soon brought the score to 10-8, but the comeback was not to be. In the final rack Olson stumbled on the three ball and Kazakis ran the rack for the win. Another match of note was between our defending champion Jung-Lin Chang and Che-Wei Fu. This one saw Fu controlling the first half of the match and Chang fighting back in the second half. It came down to a nail-biting double-hill finish with Chang sinking the final ball for the win.
The second round saw Alex Pagulayan using his pixie dust on Josh Roberts for an 11-4 victory while Ko Ping-Chung got past Brandon Shuff 11-5. Meanwhile, Ping-Chung’s younger brother Ping-Han was gathering experience playing Dennis Orcollo on the TV table. Experience is all he would earn as Orcollo took him down 11-6. Chris Robinson shot an amazing match to overpower Naoyuki Oi 11-4 and Marco Teutscher won over Wu Kun Lin 11-8.
Coming back from the dinner break, play shifted to the winner’s side and the arena was filled with marquee matches. On the TV table, Nikos Ekonomopolous faced Lee Van Corteza. The match changed complexion in a hurry at 5-4 Ekonomopolous when he won a rack, broke the 9-ball and then shot an early 9-ball in the next rack. Suddenly, it was 8-4. Corteza fought back to 9-8, but couldn’t get over the hump as Ekonopolous won the match 11-9.
The comeback of the day belonged to Vietnam’s Nguyen Phuc Long against Niels Feijen. Feijen looked to be cruising to an easy win at 7-2, when things turned in Nguyen's favor. Nguyen combined a couple of good rolls with a four pack to keep Feijen in his chair as he won nine straight racks for the 11-7 win.
Play then shifted back to the one loss side to finish out the night. The 8:30 round saw very little as far as surprises with Albin Ouschan, Naoyuki Oi, Donny Mills, Billy Thorpe and Roberto Gomez all advancing. One other match of note saw Aloysius Yapp hand the youngest Ko brother, Ping Han, his second loss in a row and eliminating him from the event.
The final match of the night featured Skyler Woodward against an unusually subdued Earl Strickland. Having just faced each other in a challenge match earlier this month, both players were familiar with each other’s games. The players battled to 9-9 before Woodward notched the win to eliminate Strickland. Other players being eliminated at night’s end were Tyler Styer, Poland’s Wiktor Zielinski, Ernesto Dominguez and Frankie Hernandez.
The 2019 14:1 Straight Pool Championships has come down to its final 16 players. Eight matches that got underway at 11 a.m. were completed just in time for the 2 p.m. second round of the tournament’s single elimination phase.
As this was being written, Lee Van Corteza and Petri Makkonen were still trying to complete their match to determine who would face the undefeated (thus far) Max Lechner from Austria. John Schmidt advanced to meet Ruslan Chinakhov with a 150-54 win, while Thorsten Hohmann and Marc Vidal competed in what turned out to be the closest contest of the single elimination phase’s opening round; a 150-129 victory for Hohmann.
Johnny Archer was eliminated 150-44 by Albin Ouschan, who advanced to meet Neils Feijen. Darren Appleton advanced to meet one of the other undefeated competitors, Jani Siekkinen, with a 150-21 victory over Shaun Wilkie, who spent a good deal of the early part of the match in negative numbers.
“I had my opportunities, but couldn’t get anything done with them,” Wilkie said. “I didn’t get back to the table for five racks. He ran, like 70 on me.”
The single elimination phase of the 14:1 Straight Pool Championships began on Friday morning with three undefeated players and then, after two rounds of single elimination, there were none.
Austria’s Max Lechner (one of them) waited until 2 o’clock to face Lee Van Corteza, who’d eliminated Petri Makkonen 150-96. Lechner advanced to the quarterfinals 150-16 over Van Corteza, as Ruslan Chinakhov was eliminating John Schmidt 150-141 to join him. Lechner opened the proceedings by dropping 13 balls. Chinakov ended them by dropping 150.
“I’ve been watching pool all my life,” said travelling pool fan, Dave Gelaszuz, from Columbus, OH, “and I’ve never seen anything like it. . . two of the four (matches moving into the quarterfinals) were won by runouts.”
In the second one, Thorsten Hohmann had an eight-ball run. Ouschan ran 150 on him.
Those two, Ouschan and Chinakhov, are scheduled to meet in the quarterfinals tomorrow (Saturday) morning at 11 a.m. and will be live streamed by Billiard Sports Network via Youtube and/or Facebook, as will the second semifinal at 2 p.m. and the finals, scheduled for 6 p.m.
Jani Siekkinen from Finland faced Darren Appleton at 2 o’clock and after eliminating him, 150-93, picked up The Lion (Alex Pagulayan), who’d defeated Reymart Lim 150-12. Pagulayan downed him 150-14 and will play Marco Teutscher tomorrow (Saturday) at 2 o’clock. Teutscher had come within a ball of tying the round’s largest winning point differential of ‘8,’ downing David Alcaide 150-9. Alcaide had previously eliminated the third undefeated competitor, Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz.
The finals of the 2019 14:1 Straight Pool Championships are scheduled for 6 p.m.
Day two at the American 14.1 Straight Pool Championship is complete and some players are already learning their fates in their individual round robin brackets.
Each of the six groups will see the top four players advance to the single elimination brackets on Friday. Each group contains one undefeated player. Marco Teutscher, Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz, Ruslan Chinakhov, Max Lechner, Jani Siekkinen and Mika Immonen are all undefeated and guaranteed of a spot in Friday’s single elimination brackets.
John Schmidt (File photo courtesy of Dave Thomson – Medium Pool)
The 2019 American 14.1 Straight Pool Championship is underway at Q-Master Billiards in Virginia Beach, Virginia with an all-star field of straight pool aficionados.
The first three days of the event feature six groups of eight competitors playing round robin races to 125. John Schmidt, in his first tournament since his historic run of 626 balls back in June, is a perfect 2-0 with dominant wins over Bobby Hunter and Reymart Lim. Schmidt’s 2-0 record has him at the top of his group, tied with Spaniard Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz.
The man of the week, Thorsten Hohmann, is fresh off his second straight tournament win, but he dropped a day one match to Finland’s Jani Siekkinen 125-43. Hohmann did defeat Niel Gold in his other Tuesday match to turn in a 1-1 record for the day. Siekkinen defeated Pascal Dufresne in his other Tuesday match and is undefeated at 2-0.
At the Dynamic Billard Klagenfurt Open 2019, Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz (ESP) just defeated Ante Sola (CRO) with 9:4.
In winner’s round 2, #9 ranked player Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz encountered Ante Sola, an unheralded 20-year-old player from Croatia. Sanchez, having won the junior’s World 9-ball title in 2010, had a furious start and won the first 3 consecutive racks to get a head start with 3:0 over Sola. The young Croatian always tried to keep a foot in the door but Sanchez used his experience and managed to always stay ahead of Sola. In the end, Sanchez got to a well-deserved and clear 9:4 victory over Sola which was never endangered at any time during the match. Sanchez will now face Roman Hybler (CZE) in the next winner’s round while Sola waits for the winner of the match between Matthias Blim (AUT) and Jani Uski (FIN). Both matches are scheduled for tomorrow.
Other remarkable results include Mats Schjetne (NOR) winning 9:5 over Ralf Souquet (GER) in winner’s round one. In the same round, Roberto Bartol (CRO) pipped „Napoleon“ Marcus Chamat (SWE) to the post with 9:8. Jani Siekkinen (FIN) overpowered „The Maharaja“ Imran Majid (GBR) with 9:6. After a long time of being absent from the Euro-Tour, former World Games Champion Darren Appleton (GBR) attended the Klagenfurt Open. In his first round match, he overcame Jan Kjetil Nordrum (NOR) with 9:4. Then he had to give in to Jakub Koniar (SVK) with 8:9. On the loser’s side, Appleton managed to stay alive in the event by winning 9:3 over Andrea Milioli (ITA).
Probably the biggest upset of the day happened in the match between Ruslan Chinakhov (RUS) and Michael Schneider (SUI). Chinakhov, currently ranked #17 on the Euro-Tour rankings was the favoured player by miles. The Russian has already won a Euro-Tour event in Leende in 2017 and became second in Treviso in the same year and in Leende earlier this year. He is definitely one player to count in when guessing who is taking the victory in a Euro-Tour event. His opponent is not even listed in the current Euro-Tour rankings. But Schneider took down Corrieri in his first match with 9:7 which should have rung all alarm bells with Chinakhov. However, the course of the match between the two was very amazing. Chinakhov could not find any rhythm in his game and Schneider consequently used that to his benefit. Chinakhov underestimated his opponent obviously. It took nine racks for Ruslan Chinakhov to open his account against Schneider who was already on the hill with 8:0. After Chinakhov won rack #9, the Swiss player wasted no more time and won another rack to wipe the floor with Chinakhov, winning 9:1 over the disappointed Russian who now needs to come up with a good performance over the loser’s round in order to make it to the Mosconi Cup team this year.
Tomorrow, the Dynamic Billard Klagenfurt Open 2019 will continue at 09:00 CET with matches from loser’s round 2.
Every day, up to two matches will be streamed LIVE over the EPBF Facebook page and on the EPBF YouTube channel. Check for updates and announcements.
The Dynamic Billard Klagenfurt Open are played in the Sportpark Klagenfurt Arena in Klagenfurt, Austria, on up to 24 tables which are all streamed LIVE throughout the whole event. In order to be able to follow all the action LIVE, premium membership can be obtained at www.kozoom.com. Once a premium membership is held, all events for the respective period of time can be viewed LIVE. Additionally, a huge video gallery is contained in the website.
The event is 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 or visit us on Facebook for regular news clips or contact our press office press@epbf.com.
Day one of the International 9-Ball Open is in the books and the first round of play is complete.
While the day saw three Mosconi Cup hopefuls sent to the one loss side early (Mitch Ellerman, Shane McMinn and Billy Thorpe), it was Tyler Styer who may have stated his case the loudest as to why he belongs on Team USA this year. Styer was faced with the unenviable task of facing Niels Feijen on the Accu-Stats streaming table. Feijen already has a World Cup of Pool title on his resume for this year, and would certainly be happy to add the inaugural International Open title to his long list of titles. Styer came out on fire in this match and was ahead 8-3 before the crowd knew what was happening. A fluked ball from Feijen in rack twelve was the spark that he needed and it was then his turn to make a run. “He started walking around the table with confidence, and I thought uh-oh” Styer was overheard saying after the match. “Uh-oh” was right, as Feijen quickly knotted the score at 8-8 and looked to be on his way to the first round win. Styer wasn’t done though. With the vocal crowd cheering his every rack, and both Team USA Captain Johan Ruijsink and Co-Captain Jeremy Jones watching, Styer wrested control of the match away from Feijen and went on to win the match 11-9. Jones couldn’t help but sit up and take notice of Styer’s play. “For him to be playing like this on the feature table against a tough opponent, he is definitely making a statement” said Jones late in the match.
Following the Feijen/Styer match, another Team USA hopeful Billy Thorpe was hoping to duplicate Styer’s performance in his match with Ko Pin-Yi. Thorpe played perfect and raced to an early 3-0 lead. Unfortunately for Thorpe, the races are to eleven here at the International Open as Ko clawed back to win the match 11-9.
Earlier matches in the day on Sunday saw Ralf Souquet sent to the one loss side by Johnny Archer as Archer continues his “Don’t Call It A Comeback” tour. Chinese Taipei’s sharpshooter Yu Lung Chang was also sent to the one loss side, after a one sided 11-6 loss to John Schmidt. Two of the Filipino monsters in the event were taken to hill-hill by tough opponents with Carlo Biado beating Finland’s Jani Siekkinen and James Aranas beating Marc Bijsterbosch from The Netherlands.
While Day One had it’s fair share of marquee matchups, Day Two looks even better with winner’s side matches that include…
Watch select matches with the online PPV coverage from Accu-Stats and follow all of the action at this year's event with our online coverage including real time scoring and live brackets.
The International 9-Ball Open is ready to begin with a field of 113 players and the field has definitely lived up to it's name with representatives from 25 different countries and almost every top professional player in the game today. Of the Fargo top 10 worldwide players, only Wu Jia Qing is not in this field.
With a field this stacked with talent, the first round already contains a number of marquee matches. The following matches are lined up for the first round…
Matches begin at 10:30 Eastern Time on Sunday October 21st. Watch select matches with the online PPV coverage from Accu-Stats and follow all of the action at this year's event with our online coverage including real time scoring and live brackets.
