Shane Van Boening (Taka G Wu/Matchroom Multi Sport)
Shane Van Boening will begin the defense of his World Pool Championship title against Japan’s Masato Yoshioka in Kielce, Poland from February 1-5 live on Sky Sports in the UK, Viaplay in Poland, Scandinavia and the Baltics, DAZN in the USA as well as Matchroom.Live and networks worldwide.
The American will look to become only the second player in history to defend the title following in the footsteps of Earl Strickland in a packed arena at Targi Kielce. 46 countries will be represented in the 128-player field as it is whittled down to the Last 64 over the first two days of action before it’s straight knockout to the end where one will claim the $60,000 first-place prize and the world crown.
The draw was completed with the top 64 players from the Nineball World Rankings against an unseeded player from the other 64 in the hat. Standout first-round ties include 2015 world champion Ko Pin Yi facing James Aranas of the Philippines whilst 2022 semi-finalist Abdullah Alyousef faces the tricky prospect of Johann Chua. 2004 world champion Alex Pagulayan was unseeded and will meet Michael Schneider.
World Cup of Pool winner David Alcaide takes on Billy Thorpe and Shane Wolford‘s mission for a spot on Team USA at the 2023 Mosconi Cup takes on Pia Filler. Francisco Sanchez Ruiz had a year to remember last year and will begin his Nineball campaign against So Shaw of Iran.
Double elimination matches are all race to 9, with all matches from the Last 64 a race to 11 except the final, which is a race to 13.
Table 1 will be live on broadcasters worldwide including Sky Sports in the UK, Viaplay in Poland, Scandinavia, Baltics, and the Netherlands, DAZN in the USA, Canada, and Italy, as well as on Matchroom.Live and networks worldwide. See where to watch here.
Table 2 will be live on Viaplay in selected territories as well as on Matchroom.Live and the Matchroom Pool YouTube channel.
Table 3 will be live on Viaplay in selected territories as well as on Matchroom.Live and the Matchroom Multi Sport YouTube channel.
Defending champion Chang Jung-Lin made it through the first round of the Predator World 8-Ball Championship with an 8-6 success over Dutchman Tim de Ruyter on the opening day of play at the Puerto Rico Convention Center, San Juan.
There were wins for Americans Shane van Boening and Tyler Styer, Germany’s Joshua Filler and Great Britain’s Jayson Shaw on the TV tables, with the former defeating Puerto Rico’s Alan Rolon.
The eventual winner will collect $60,000 of the $250,000 total prize fund from the event, which is part of the first annual Caribbean CueSports International Expo.
Rolon’s home crowd came out in force to support their local favorite, putting Van Boening in the rare spot of being the player less favored by those spectating. The Puerto Rican, who reached the knockout stages of the Medallla Light Puerto Rico Open during the week, took down the first rack and despite conceding the second, moved ahead again at 2-1 to a loud roar inside the arena.
But Van Boening’s quality ultimately showed. Rolon fouled by moving the 5 ball as he bridged over it and the American was able to level. A great break opened up the fifth rack for Van Boening, and before Rolon knew it he was 6-2 down in the race to eight.
A dry break afforded Rolon an opportunity to claw back the deficit. He found trouble with four balls left but made the 12 with position on the 15 to bring the match to 6-3. However, his next break shot was his final visit as he came up dry, turning the table to Van Boening.
The five-time US Open champion had a straight shot on the 14 which set him up for the rack. Breaking at 7-3 ahead, Van Boening had the 12 down but opted to shoot the 2 owing to the layout of the table. A runout followed for the South Dakota Kid, who returns on Sunday to face Johnny Salas.
While Van Boening was winning on Table 1, on Table 2 a battle was heating up between two member’s of USA’s World Teams Championship roster from September.
Joey Tate and Tyler Styer are close friends off the table and with neither player able to build a substantial lead throughout the match it was Styer who arrived first on the hill before just a second dry break of the match by Styer allowed Tate to the table. The 17-year-old, who is also competing in Under-19 division of the Predator World Juniors 9-Ball Championships this week, played the 15 brilliantly to bring the 10 away from the side rail and from there had no problems in reaching the hill.
A dry break came at the worst possible time for Tate but when Styer missed a 4 he’d usually expect to make, the younger of the two Americans was back at the table. However, he missed the 9 to the middle pocket with three balls and the 8 remaining.
Styer showed he was feeling the pressure when the cue clipped the 10 as he looked for position on the 4. He played the shot well but again the cue kicked another ball, this time the 11, as it came through for position on the 7. The former Kremlin Cup winner held his nerve, though, and made a testy shot up table to come back and make the match-winning 8.
“I’d rather play Shane or Jayson, anybody else but Joey,” said Styer. “I have helped him out a lot and taken him under my wing, so to draw him in the first round sucked. I believe in him but I have to forget about that when I play him because he is like a little brother to me.”
Later in the day, Tate advanced to the quarter-finals of the Predator World Juniors 9-Ball Championship. Playing in the Under-19 division, he defeated Germany’s Dennis Laszkowski 9-5 to progress from the winners’ side. His sister Bethany is through to the last eight of the Girls division, along with Savannah Easton, Lena Primus and Alara Ghaffari. The other Under-19 quarter-finalists are Keane Derek Rota, Szymon Kural and Yannick Pongers.
Riku Romppanen, Mika van Berkel, Felix Vogel and Lazar Kostic made it four Europeans in the last eight of the Under 17s. The losers’ qualification matches of all three divisions take place on Sunday, followed by the quarter-finals. All matches are broadcast live on Kozoom.com and all three Junior finals will be on World Billiard TV YouTube Channel and watchbilliard.tv on Monday.
Predator World 8-Ball Championship reigning champion Chang Jung-Lin has waited ten years to defend his title and was given a tough examination by Tim de Ruyter before eventually winning 8-6. There was a hill-hill win for Jayson Shaw against Dimitris Loukatos while former World 8-Ball Champion Ralf Souquet will face Konrad Juszczyszyn on Sunday after beating Juan Carlos Exposito of Spain in his opening match.
Table 2 has full coverage and commentary on the Predator Pro Billiard Series Facebook Page. All tables, including matches from the Predator World Juniors 9-Ball Championships, can be watch live for FREE at Kozoom.com
Ko Pin Yi became the first major casualty of the 2022 UK Open Pool Championship at the Copper Box Arena, London live on the Matchroom Pool Facebook and YouTube pages as well as Matchroom.Live as the field edges ever closer to the single-elimination stage.
It was a packed day in England’s capital as 40 players were sent packing home with the biggest name coming in 2015 World Champion, Pin Yi. The Chinese Taipei star was sent to the Losers Bracket by Luke Garland yesterday and faced a potential three matches on day three to keep his UK Open journey going. Pin Yi beat Craig Brown early on 9-6 but came unstuck to South Africa’s JJ Faul who put on what he described as the performance of his career.
Mieszko Fortunski reached the semi-finals of the World Pool Masters just a few weeks back beating Jayson Shaw along the way and the Pole moved past the Brit once again to keep on the winners’ half of the draw. Shaw faces a stern test tomorrow if he is to keep going with a potential three matches on the agenda to reach the Last 16, first in the form of Jonas Souto Comino of Spain.
Fans were treated to a breathtaking performance by 14-year-old Riku Romppanen who came from 8-4 down to beat Robbie Capito to remain in the competition and meet Skyler Woodward to keep his hopes going. Romppanen’s journey will be one to remember with three wins over his three days but eventually came unstuck to Woodward despite pegging the two-time Mosconi Cup MVP back to 5-5 after Woodward led 5-0. The result leaving Woodward with a match against 2012 World Pool Masters champion Karol Skowerski to reach the Last 16.
Joshua Filler needs only one more win to reach the Last 16, the Killer doing a double on America’s Chris Reinhold and Shane Wolford 9-5 and 9-1 respectively. Filler will come up against Britain’s Luke Rollison, who has battled his way through after overcoming World Pool Championship semi-finalist Abdullah Alyousef 9-7 in a memorable performance. World Champion Shane Van Boening is also in the same position as Filler after beating Juan Carlos Exposito of Spain and legend of the game Ralf Souquet to meet Poland’s Daniel Maciol for a spot in the Last 16 tomorrow.
Thorsten Hohmann will meet Mario He in Winners Qualification tomorrow, after the pair dismantled Alexander Kazakis and Ko Ping Chung 9-3 and 9-1 respectively. The other Winners Qualification match sees Dennis Orcollo up against former World Junior champion Sanjin Pehlivanovic. Orcollo was given a scare against Souto Comino who had gone into a 5-0 lead on the Filipino great. Pehlivanovic meanwhile overcame Nineball World No.5, Max Lechner, in an emphatic fashion 9-2.
The losers’ bracket is stacked ahead of Round 6. One of Francisco Sanchez Ruiz and Alexander Kazakis will learn their fate early on tomorrow as the pair do battle to make Losers Round 7 whilst it will be an all-American affair between Shane Wolford and Oscar Dominguez to keep their hopes alive. Two other 2022 Nineball World Ranking Top 32 players will meet in Alyousef and Marc Bijsterbosch. World Pool Masters runner-up Lo Ho Sum will face Romppanen. Ho Sum getting the better of Pijus Labutis and Denis Grabe on a busy day.
It was strictly business for Albin Ouschan who recovered from defeat to Karol Skowerski on the Winners’ side with victories over Snooker’s Gary Wilson 9-2 and Joao Grillo 9-1 to meet Souquet to keep hopes alive of another Nineball title. Ouschan winning seven racks on the spin to knock out Wilson.
Francisco Sanchez Ruiz vs Alex Kazakis (L6)
Jayson Shaw vs Jonas Souto Comino (L6)
Oscar Dominguez vs Shane Wolford (L6)
Joshua Filler vs Luke Rollison (W5)
Shane Van Boening vs Daniel Maciol (W5)
Ko Ping Chung vs Nicholas De Leon (L6) Mika Immonen vs Chris Alexander (L6)
Marc Bijsterbosch vs Abdullah Alyousef (L6)
Dennis Orcollo vs Sanjin Pehlivanovic (W5) David Alcaide vs Mieszko Fortunski (W5)
The final two days are available on Sky Sports in the UK and Ireland, DAZN in the USA, Canada, Germany, Austria, Spain, Italy, and Switzerland as well as on Viaplay in Scandinavia and the Baltics and various other broadcasters worldwide including Matchroom.Live in relevant countries. See the full where to watch list here.
Tickets start from £15 for the day using the code UKOPEN at checkout. Secure yours here
Fedor Gorst, 15-year-old player from Moscow, Russia, just came up with a magnificent comeback against Nick Van Den Berg (NED), winning the match with 9:8.
In the beginning everything looked like business as usual. Nick van den Berg, multiple European Champion and winner of 3 Euro-Tour stops, Mosconi Cup team player, was definitely favored over young talent Fedor Gorst. He took a quick 8:3 lead and went on the hill without any hiccups. It looked like the match would be over after a short time with an expected victor. But after rack eleven, the tide has turned in the match. Van den Berg’s break did not come anymore and Gorst hung in there, not accepting the threat of losing. To the contrary, it looked like Gorst grew stronger and stronger with every chance he could get. The match was really very entertaining to watch and after 16 racks played, the scoreboard suddenly displayed a tie at 8:8. The match had turned into a one-rack-decider. What a drama! In rack 17, van den Berg was definitely the better player. He played a good safety shot and left nothing for Gorst who could only hit the colored ball but left a shot for van den Berg. The Dutch however ran out of position for the 6-ball and had to play another safety shot which he did with all of his experience. The cue ball was hiding behind the 9-ball and the 6-ball was some 30 centimeters away, completely blocked. But Gorst went for it and flukes it in over two rails first, sinking the 6-ball in the side pocket. He then ran the remaining balls on the table to win the match with 9:8 and send Nick van den Berg to the loser’s side.
Other interesting results from today include Kasper Kristoffersen (DEN) winning 9:8 over Jim Chawki (SWE) in a match that was characterized by many errors from both players. IN an all-Polish clash, young Wiktor Zielinski defeated grandmaster Mateusz Sniegocki with 9:8. Alexander Kazakis (GRE) showed no mercy with Juan Carlos Exposito (ESP), creaming him with 9:1. Imran Majid (GBR) took down Francisco Sanchez Ruiz (ESP) with 9:7. After a long time of absence, Artem Koshovyi (UKR) is entering the European pool stage again. Today, his victim was Ralph Eckert (GER) with 9:4. „The Tornado“ Tony Drago (MLT) was already trailing 2:5 to Nikos Ekonomopoulos (GRE) when he seemed to shift into overdrive and started playing unbelievably strong. He allowed one more rack for Ekonomopoulos to take, winning the match with 9:6.
Joshua Filler (GER) turned 18 years old today and made himself a nice gift, winning with 9:2 over Wojciech Szewczyk (POL). Unheralded Roy Stolk (NED) powered past Andrey Seroshtan (RUS) with 9:3 and also proceeds to the winner’s qualification round. Mark Gray (GBR) defeated Steve Leisen (LUX) with a clear and unchallenged victory of 9:3.
Matches will continue tomorrow at 09:00 with the third loser’s round.
All matches can be viewed LIVE at www.kozoom.com. Up to 11 tables in HiRes quality are providing you with all the action of the event. You do not miss out one single match! Join today!
More information about participants, schedules, achievements, rankings, etc can be found on the event website www.eurotouronline.com
The event will be hosted by the European Pocket Billiard Federation EPBF and organized by International Billiard Promotion Foundation IBPF.
Nick Malai (GRE) ended all hopes of Rene Peeters (NED) at the Dynamic Billard Dutch Open by winning 9:5 in the loser’s round, eliminating Peeters from the event.
Malai has just recently changed his nationality from Albanian to Greek. This tournament is the first occasion where he plays for as Greek and he is still a hot candidate for surprises at anytime and any event. Today, Dutch senior player Rene Peeters was his victim. However, after ten racks the match was still square with a score of 5:5. Then Malai went for a toilet break. When he came back, he managed to get a small advantage over Peeters. The match suddenly slid to Malai’s side and Peeters couldn't do anything against it. He was only able to watch Malai snatch rack after rack from him, winning the match with 9:5.
Other remarkable results from tonight’s losers round matches include Can Salim-Giasar (GER) winning with 9:3 over Juan Carlos Exposito (ESP). „The Terminator“ Niels Feijen (NED) ousted Pierfrancesco Garzia (ITA) with 9:4 and will now face „The Lion“ Alex Pagulayan (CAN) in the loser’s round 3 at 10:30 CET. Mark Gray (GBR) is still fighting his way through the loser’s round. Today, he won over Dave Sel (BEL) and Kevin Becker (GER), both matches 9:1. He will meet German junior player Tobias Bongers tomorrow morning at09:00 CET. Euro-Tour’s Nr. 1 player Nick Van Den Berg (NED) also still has a word to say in the tournament. His first loser’s side match went 9:6 in his favor over Sweden’s Daniel Tangudd.
The tournament will continue tomorrow morning at 09:00 CET.
Three out of 11 tables can be watched LIVE throughout the event on www.kozoom.com. The event will be hosted by the European Pocket Billiard Federation EPBF and organized by International Billiard Promotion, IBP. For further information, please check the event website at www.eurotouronline.com or contact the EPBF press office at press@epbf.com
After a days rest and a good night sleep, here are some final words about this years event..
As all of you probably noticed I’ve worked hard to get this edition of DCC right up there with the biggest tournaments in Europe and on the international stage. Therefore I had to get it noticed by a lot of people.. you be the judge whether I succeeded in doing my job. I know that from time to time it must have been a little but annoying to get spammed and notified every single day for the past few months, but in my opinion just a marginal downside of things, it’s simply the way marketing works nowadays. Obviously our event tries to copy one of the biggest pool-billiard happenings in the world.. the Derby City Classic. Our goal is to bring the class and variety it has to people in Europe, but these are only the first few steps towards building the same success they have. We know that there’s more to it and that we need to improve over time. Nevertheless we are proud it rose to what it is now! Couldn’t have imagined it would be such a great event just the 2nd time around..
On Tuesday and Wednesday we prepared Ames for the 2nd Annual 2014 Deurne City Classic. Starting this year themed with our new partner and main co-sponsor Predator Cues, thanks to Jimmy Worung from Loontjens Biljarts (main sponsor) for setting this up. Hope in the future we will grow even bigger together…
Tables and balls were cleaned after the Dutch Nationals so the venue looked fresh again, ready to receive players from all around Europe. The DCC saw a massive turn-up from foreign countries like the UK, Germany, Poland, France, Spain and even Austria. As the event started on Friday people were looking to prepare themselves early.. Ames had then showing up Thursday morning for some practice and in the evening they already were fighting for some hard cash. For us organizers Thursday afternoon meant last minute prepping like; getting promo material properly arranged in the DCC Arena, setting up the tournament desk and finishing off all matters regarding draws and tournament setup. I was also occupied with pickup up family and friends from airports incl. old friend Bartek Skoniecki(crew member) and Imran Majid.Harry was doing his thing and Aziz still had to put in some hard work at his company. Thursday night the early arrivals included players from Spain; David Alcaide Bermudez & Juan Carlos Exposito, who I accidentally met walking to the hotel when I dropped off some friends. Later on the Livestream/Match Recording EBillard.fr Team from France arrived, we spoke a little bit and they went on setting up their gear and installing all necessary equipment to provide the live matches that were broadcast throughout the event. They also brought along Pool-Photo celeb JP Parmentier, imo the best photographer in our business! It was an honor to meet and work together with him! More players came in after a while including the first Polish and German guys; Marek Derek, Kuba Sawicki, Konrad Piekarski, Mieszko Fortuński, his brother Marcel and Konrad Juszczyszyn. Mario He and Oliver Ortmann also came a day early. All players eager to practice for our event. Stumbled upon some Facebook faces but now in real life, that was my highlight of the day. Del Sim and friends came in and we spoke a bit and after that it was back to work. As the clock ticked on we were all still busy finishing our work and setup. Harry did all preparations towards getting the bar properly set up, I was connecting all wires for the booth and Aziz came in to support us. With the arena set and ready to be played at, the booth ready for the tournament we all went home or to our hotels to get a good night sleep.
Friday morning we arrived early and found out that the big ‘FINAL ASSEMBLY’ poster had been dropped off by the courier and to my surprise it did not disappoint! Most of the players that entered the MAIN-EVENT were displayed, some missing and some replaced due to last-minute withdrawals. But all in all a well propped and liked feature of the DCC. People were feeling proud to be placed on the main promotional poster displayed at our event.
All in all it was a great first day, with some laughs and drink in the evening.. we had ringgames and money-matches going. The setup was 2x €50,- 10ball (2 tables x6 players afterwards combined into one final table), 5x €20,- 10ball and 1x €20,- Bankpool Ringgame. Here are the winners:
€50,- STAKES (2 tables got into 1 : Karl Boyes = €275,- , Wojtek Szewczyk €175,- , Imran Majid €100,-
€20,- STAKES 10ball: Del Sim, Konrad Juszczyszyn, Jelle Kijlstra, Mark Lunn, Wojtek Trajdos and Pepijn De Wit won the Bankpool Ringgame. All of them won the entire pot with an extra entry from DCC.
FINAL WORDS…
I speak for myself and my co-founders Harry Charalampidis and Aziz Moussati when I say it was a great pleasure and experience to organize this great event.
To get all those players together in the small town called Deurne @ Sportcentrum Ames. Especially great to have the big names come over from foreign countries; Ralf Souquet, Tony Drago, Oliver Ortmann, Daryl Peach, Imran Majid, Karl Boyes, Stephan Cohen and of course it was an honor to have our Dutch stars Nick Van Den Berg and Niels Feijen present as well. But these are only a couple of players I was looking forward to meet, when starting the event I met new people on Facebook and was really looking forward to meet them in person as well. People who helped me out contacting others who enlisted and chatting in general about the event. Made new friends in real life like Del Sim, Phil Burford,Theodore Bitsaxakis, Sven Wenkheimer, Jürgen Wulf, Elliot Sanderson, Mark Lunn, Karl Boyes, Imran Majid and a lot more. Also had good talks with some people who know what they are talking about regarding tournament setup etc. like Ralf Souquet and others. Thank you for that. Met and befriended pool-photography celeb JP Parmentier who came along with Ebilliard.fr team and showed me the roped of marketing and internet publishing. Speaking of Ebilliard.fr.. these are some dedicated bunch of pool maniacs.. really! Kem Sen, Yannick Barrabès, Nikola Dc, Stephane Leveille and the rest of the guys that came along and helped out.. you are saints in the game of Livestreaming! We had so many people giving great feedback about the quality of your work, its just ridiculous! Big THUMBS-UP to you and hope we can count on you next year…
When creating events of this magnitude you need good people around you who help out when needed, that’s why I want to thank the following people for volunteering as crew or other ways; Gijs Van Westenbrugge, Kevin Dijkstra, Tim De Ruyter, Lesley Weeterings, Bartek Skoniecki, Konrad Piekarski, Susan Verheijen and other who I maybe forgot. Want to thank our two referees who got into the arena at the Last16 stage; Johny Vanrijkel and Tom Penrose.. a job well done ! Also want to thank the Ames Crew for doing a great job behind the Bar, especially Evy Peeters and Eveline Brinks.
A big thanks goes out to all spectators for coming to Ames and cheering on their beloved players and spreading the word to others. It really felt like the house was packed!
Obviously our event wouldn't have been a success without funding, therefore I would like to thank our Sponsors and Partners for making this event possible by contributing in all sort of ways:
Main Sponsors: Predator Cues & Loontjens Biljarts
Table fitting: Serge Das of Serge Das billiards
General: Bavaria, Savicki, AM Koeriersdienst, Simonis Cloth, Aramith, Ho-WAH, www.sixpockets.de, De Biljart Ballen (krant), Martin Welk Custom Cues for his repairs
Q-Promotions / Bobby Boleyn
if it wasn't for these three guys this event wouldn't be a success either..
Aziz Moussati for being one of my best friends and partners in crime.. couldn't have imagined setting up DCC without you. Your input on all matters was the key to my inspiration.
Harry Charalampidis.. this guy build the best venue in Europe IMHO! Props go out to you for doing the best job in organizing all sponsors and creating the arena.. also helping me out on a personal level in the past few years!
Gino De Ruyter.. thanks to you we got the event riding on wheels! Schedules etc. ? HE is your man! Without your input and hard work the event wouldnt have started or finished on time.. ! Thank you!
thats it.. 2014 DCC is done and dusted..
Hope to see you all next year! @ the 3rd Annual ….
Friday throughout the side-events players had the time to shoot their innings of Straighpool. Two tables were made available for this in the DCC Arena. After a couple of players shot some smaller runs one of the first to shoot a high break of 99 was Niels Feijen. A little while later he shot the exact same break again. More players bought-in but struggled to get a high run going. Amongst them were Mario He, Tobias Hoiß, Nick Van Den Berg, Konrad Juszczyszyn, Juan Carlos Exposito, Daniel Kandi, Aziz Moussati and Oliver Ortmann. Konrad Piekarski later on shot a 111 on his 4th run and David Alcaide took his 1st try to a 113 on the TV Table. We had 4 high runs now with a little over 100 balls when Tobias Bongers bested David’s run with a 114.
Saturday afternoon more players decided to try their form in the 14.1 Shootout and Huidji See joined the 4 best with a solid break of 140. This saw some players getting nervous so they tried another run at it.. Tobias Bongers tried to better his but failed, Joshua got into gear and shot a 148. Nick van den Berg also had some innings left. At first he shot a 106 which was too low to join the 4 best, so immediately after that run he re-focused and shot a 154 and stopped cus his 9ball Main-Event match was announced. We marked his cue- and breakball so he could finish later. Eventually he shot a 183 for the official High-Run Bonus of €100,-.
In the evening we announced the 4 semi-finalist for the shootout, which were: Huidji See vs. Joshua Filler, Tobias Bongers vs. Nick vd Berg. The youngsters both showed their form and made it through to the final with the following scores: Joshua (100)-Huidji (87) and Tobias(100, break of 85)-Nick(75).
So on to the Final where Joshua dominated in the beginning and with some small runs and safety-battles, he won over Tobias with a score of 125-89 to be crowned winner of the 2nd DCC 14.1 Shootout. The prize-fund in total consisted of 19 entries with added money: 1st: €600,- 2nd: €250,- 3rd: 100,- . Joshua now already won 2 events @ DCC!
A.Moussati, M.Sawicki, N.Feijen and H.Charalampidis
Saturday morning we started off with the MAIN 9ball EVENT…
1st four groups of 24 started off at 09:00h. All went well as nobody got sanctioned with a penalty, neither did anyone forfeit or no-show.
Group A saw one of the favorites Ivo Aarts sail through to the 2nd Winners round with wins over Kaylash Persad, Olivier Vandenbohede. In the 3rd round however he got beaten by UK’s Tony Burton who did not lose a match to qualify for the last64. Marek Derek, Serge Das and Tobias Hoiß all did the same thing by defeating Kadir Turku, Hoa Nguyen, Nicolas Georgopoulos and Tom Penrose. Three of them eventually qualified for the Knock-Out stage themselves by winning their subsequent matches. So did Ivo Aarts in the end.
Group B’s 2nd Winners Round had some strong matches and some surprises as Luxemburg’s Sebastian Beuel beat German 1.Bundesliga playing Klaudio Kerec 8-4 and Karl Boyes did the same thing to Sixpocket’s admin Florian Scholl. Both losers redeemed themselves in the 3rd Losers Round by defeating Joerie van den Broeck and Stefan Sprangers, the latter one not being as slouch. Through the winners side Daryl Peach, Karl Boyes, Bartek Skoniecki and Konrad Juszczyszyn qualified for the Last64 without losing a match. From the Losers round Carlos Cabello, Raphael Keusen, Sebastian Beuel and Klaudio Kerec joined them. Unfortunately some good players went down, like: Alain Da Costa and Maurice Houben.
Group C had some strong players, winning their 1st matches with ease; Niels Feijen beat greek player Theodore Bitsaxakis 8-2, Wojtek Trajdos did the same thing to UK’s Tom Stavely. Aziz Moussati lost to strong playing Benji Buckley 3-8 and after that 7-8 to Peter Lau. This saw him drop out of the 9ball. He said he could not focus on playing because of all the things that went on regarding organization etc. I myself had the same problem. Further in this group’s losers side Matthias Blehs got rid of Walter Hottgenroth and Benjamin Baier. On the winners side Niels handed a donut to Trajdos and Stephan Cohen beat Marcel Fortunski to both qualify for the Last64. Tobias Bongers and Benji Buckley sent Kyle Van den Bosch and Martin Steinlage to the last losers round. 4 players took their last chance to qualify; Trajdos beat Peter Lau 8-4, Bitsaxakis – Steinlage 8-3, Fortunski did the same thing to Del Sim. Matthias Blehs handed out the second donut of the group to Kyle van den Bosch.
Group D featured some strong playing German Bundesliga players; Stefan Nolle and Valery Kuloyants who got rid of their opponents Gijs van Westebrugge and Edward Werlemann pretty quickly in the 1st round. 2nd Winners Round matches went pretty quickly as well when Mieszko Fortunski beat Lex Wellens 8-0, Tony Drago vs. Jan Van Lierop 8-1. Mieszko continued his strong form by winning 8-0 again in his following match against Michael Kasper. Other favorites did not have that same luck as Tony Drago lost to strong youngster Francisco Sanchez Ruiz. Ralf Souquet showed Stefan Nolle who’s boss with a score of 8-5 and Valery did the same thing to Konrad Piekarski. From the losers round the following players eventually went on to qualify for the Last64: Tony Dargo over Sean Dennis with a score of 8-1, Stefan Nolle beat Jan van Lierop 8-2, Konrad Piekarski against Lex Wellens 8-4.
In the afternoon the last 4 groups started their matches, some of the previous groups had to qualify the next morning some of them were done..
Group E surprised a bit when Micha Beuriot beat Guy Buss in the first round and one of the favs Imran Majid got beaten by Nicolas Baumanns. I got my donut handed to me by Noel Bruynooghe.. Couldn’t focus on my game with all the stuff happening around me and had to get comfortable with my new cue as well. Noel played a very good match though, missing maybe 1 ball the entire match. He later on went and qualified for the Last64 by beating Sebastian Fuhrmann. One of the other strong favorites Mateusz Sniegocki sailed through with a score of 8-0 in his 2nd and 3rd match as well. Fast playing Marko Vogel struggled a bit but in the end got through with a hill-hill against Mario Stahl, who himself also eventually got through by beating Lennaert Speijker 8-1 in the losers round. Imran Majid, Robin Cripps, Anthony Wever also went on to qualify winning their matches in the 4th losers round.
Group F consisted of some great players like Oliver Ortmann and Juan Carlos Exposito, who met each other in the latter stages. Oliver first beat fellow countryman Michael Heinz with a big score of 8-0. Think Michael couldn’t get his rhythm going as he normally played way better than that. Norman Bakker surprisingly beat JCE 8-1, Greek fury Xrhstos Davetas beat Thomas Aschauer 8-4 and strong playing Marc Bijsterbosch beat Sven Wenkheimer with easy and a final score of 8-2. In the 3rd Winners round some big matches emerged like Ramazan Dincer vs. Ortmann (8-6), Elliot Sanderson vs. Marc Bijsterbosch (8-5) and Adrian Borowiec vs. Davetas (8-4). So now the losers qualification had some great thrillers going where Exposito met with Ortmann and beat him 8-5, which caused a bit of an upset. Also Hector del Amo Garcia who lost his 1st match got through to the last round and bear Sven Pauritsch to qualify. Marc Bijsterbosch also redeemed himself and beat Waikit Kwok after a hard battle. Davetas was the last one to set his score and got through.
Group G featured some big names like Mario He, David Alcaide and Phil Burford. But also strong formed Joshua Filler who had made a name for himself at DCC by winning the 9ball Banks against Nick v/d Berg in the final. 1st round saw no surprises and all big names went through to the next one. Then we had a big match-up when Mario He drew David Alcaide in the next round and beat him on the hill. David eventually got through to the last round and got through. Joshua showed that age does not matter and shot his way through Phil Burford at the arena with a score of 8-6. Marco Teutscher also went through over Jimmy Worung (8-5). In the 3rd winner round more surprises came when Daniel Kandi beat strong favorite Mario He. Furthermore Mark Lunn beat OC Chan, Teutscher beat Jelle Kijlstra and Joshua Filler knocked his countryman Clemens Phillipen to the losers round. Last chance to qualify for the Last64.. Phil Burford, Julian Kortüm, previously mentioned David Alcaide and Ralf Mrnka did so.
Group H was the final one and had 2013 Champion Nick Van Den Berg starting his journey to defend his crown. Started off with a bye and then went on to qualify for the Last64 by beating German Bundesliga player Kevin Becker and Belgian WCOP player Moritz Lauwereyns in his 3rd match. More strong players started off well; Huidji See beat Female player Vivien Schade 8-0, Jakob Belka vs. Olivier van Loteringen went down with 8-2. 2nd round winners side had some good matches when Dennis Jansen beat Hanno Bröcker on the Hill, Wojtek Szewczyk knocked his countryman Jakob Belka to the losers-side and youngster Aaron Vancoppenolle did the same thing to strong Female Chantal Manske. Last winners round saw all the favorites go through; NvdB, Szewczyk, See and Dennis Janssen, all with ease. Losers side saw Lars Kuckherm, Belka, Becker and Mauwereyns go through.
So that was it for the groups.. Now on to the Last 64 of the 9ball MAIN-EVENT and the 9ball DROP-OUT Challenge.
Around 10:00h on Sunday some matches of the Knock-Out stage began early, but most started around 12:00h.
Some noticeable wins were Moritz Lauwereyns beating his former WCOP team-mate Serge Das with a score of 9-5. Phil Burford beat his countryman Karl Boyes 9-7. Ivo Aarts beat Mateusz Sniegocki 9-8 after trailing 8-6. Konrad Piekarski beat Noel Bruynooghe with an easy 9-4. Norman Bakker got close with Matthias Blehs but beat him on the hill. Raphael Keusen beat strong playing Daniel Kandi on the hill as well. So did Carlos Cabello vs. Mark Lunn.
On to the Last32 where more surprises came along when Wojtek Szewczyk beat Huidji See with ease, final score of 9-5. Moritz Lauwereyns kept his form and beat last year’s Runner-Up Marek Derek 9-6. Konrad Juszczyszyn also shocked everyone when he kept his nerve on the hill against Phil Burford and beat him. More strong play by Ivo Aarts, Imran Majid, Ralf Souquet, Konrad Piekarski, Joshua Filler, Nick van den Berg, Niels Feijen, Tobias Hoiß who all went through to the Last16.
Surely now at this stage you would think only the strong favorites would emerge.. but no, Moritz Lauwereyns continued his form and beat Tobias Hoiß 9-7. Konrad Piekarski being the underdog against Ivo Aarts showed who’s who and beat him 9-5. Mario He did not disappoint and beat Juszczyszyn 9-5 as well. But the biggest surprises of them all was Wojtek Szewczyk taking his revenge on Nick van den Berg from last year at the quarter-finals. After trailing a couple of games Wojtek in the end prevailed and beat the struggling Nick 9-7. Fair to say Nick was dealing with some personal issues on the side. Nevertheless a great performance by the young Pole. More names that went through to the Last8 were Filler, Majid, Feijen and a player I would like to call the new ‘DARK HORSE’ ; Marcel Fortunski. Did not know Marcel had so much in him.. he went through to this stage by beating some big names in my book; Ramazan Dincer (5x 1.Bundesliga Champion), Normal Bakker (strong Dutch player), Elliot Sanderson (GB9 Tour) .. Well DONE!
At this stage our well prized DROP-OUT Challenge began, this tournament was created to let players have another change at some good prize-money and to let them enjoy our venue some more. Where at other tournament after losing twice you didn’t have a chance to redeem yourself.. @ DCC players still did! The Tournament had the same format and rules but shorter races and single knock-out.. so fast play and surprise results were expected. When people found out that the tournament was opened to more than 64 players, whey immediately signed up and the final field was 80.
Moritz again shocked everyone on the TV Table and beat strong favorite Mario He. Feijen showed who boss against Majid by beating him 9-5. Piekarski went on 6-1 against Marcel Fortunski in about 20 minutes but then lost focus and let the young player get back at him a little bit but in the end closed it off with a final score of 9-7. Joshua Filler kept cool against Szewczyk to beat him 9-5.
Semis both played on the TV tables, the match-ups were; Feijen vs. Lauwereyns and Filler vs. Piekarski. Both matches quickly showed who the better players was on Sunday. Even through the youngster match had a bigger score it was over pretty quick cus of fast run-outs and no safety battles. Niels and Moritz took a while longer as tactics came into play. Niels finally closed the deal with a 9-2 win.
So Holland vs. Germany in the FINAL! Niels quickly showed that the break in 9ball ET Style is mastered by those who regularly play the format and broke and ran most of his racks. Joshua struggled to get runs round because he lost his cue-ball a lot. Niels in front is unstoppable, I knew that from the get-go. Proved me right by winning and becoming the NEW 2014 ‘PREDATOR’ Deurne City Classic® CHAMPION !! Congrats Niels Feijen
Though "MASTER OF THE TABLE" title goes to Joshua Filler ! Winning the 9ball banks, 14.1 Shootout and becoming Runner-up in the 9ball MAIN-EVENT!
Cison di Valmarino, Italy: In the first winner’s round of the Dynamic Billard Castelbrando Open, the winner of the recent Euro-Tour, Konstantin Stepanov (RUS) wiped the floor with Giorgio Margola (ITA), clearly winning with 9:2.
It was a one man show; and what a classical one. Stepanov played brilliant pool and left no chance for his pitiful opponent. He took his performance from North Cyprus up and performed amazingly strong. Out of his nine racks he ran seven with balls down on 100% of his break shots.
Margola could only come up with 40% break efficiency – not enough to endanger Stepanov at all.
One of the few mistakes Stepanov committed occurred in rack four. He ran out of position for the 8-ball and had to try and bank it into the side pocket. He missed and allowed Margola to open his account, still being in front 3:1. In the next rack, Stepanov even scratched on the 2-ball. But Margola was not able to benefit from Stepanov’s mistakes. He played poor positions and got himself in worse and worse situations which led
to him making mistakes. Stepanov consequently used his chances and punished Margola for his mistakes in that stage of the match. After nine racks, Stepanov was leading 8:1. He got some momentum going and played like he was not from this planet. In the 10th rack, Margola finally got a ball down on his break. But he only got to the 4-ball which he missed. However, he left a tough shot for Stepanov and the Russian also missed. This time, Margola was able to make use of his chance and scored his second point. But that was his last appearance at the table. Stepanov broke and ran the next rack to take a more
than deserved 9:2 victory over Margola.
Other notable results from the first winner’s round include Niels Feijen (NED) sneaking past Jonni Fulcher (GBR) with 9:8. Local hero Fabio Petroni (ITA) made short work of Balasz Miko (HUN), creaming him 9:2. Dutch prodigy Ivo Aarts collected his second 9:8 victory of the day. In round one he overcame Juan Carlos Exposito (ESP) while in round two Jani Siekkinen (FIN) was his chosen victim.
All results and more can be seen at www.eurotouronline.eu.
All 12 tables will be streamed LIVE throughout the event. Join in on www.kozoom.com/en/pool-billiard/ and become a premium member in order to enjoy all features of the site.
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 http://www.eurotouronline.eu or contact our press office.
Chinese Taipei 7-5 Belgium
Greece 7-0 Australia
Italy 7-3 Spain
THERE WAS more first round action in the 888.com World Cup of Pool at the York Hall in London and there were wins for Chinese Taipei, Greece and Italy who all make their way through to the second round.
Italy won the session closer as they got the better of Spain in the Mediterranean clash. The Spanish – David Alcaide and Juan Carlos Exposito – didn’t enjoy the best of luck as they scratched a few times and were confronted by some tricky layouts.
The Italian pair of Bruno Muratore and Fabio Petroni, who has been representing their country since the early days of the competition, looked in very good shape though and will be quietly confident about the weekend. They will play England A or Indonesia in round two.
Earlier, Australia, who has yet to progress beyond the first round at the 888.com World Cup of Pool, continued that dismal run when they were well beaten by Greece in the first white wash of the tournament.
David Rothall and James Delahunty talked about breaking the Aussie duck in their pre-match interview but it didn’t quite pan out that way as a succession of misses and poor positional play made it an easy day’s work for Greece.
2012 Mosconi Cup star Nick Ekonomopoulus and Alexander Kazakis certainly looked the part as they coasted through the racks and they could prove to be a very dangerous combination as the tournament progresses.
The fancied Chinese Taipei pair of Chang Jung-lin and Ko Pin-yi came through their first round match against Belgium but not before Serge Das and Moritz Lauweryns gave them a fight. 7-5 was the score and they will now meet Greece in the last 16.
The Belgians were always in with a chance with the experienced Das leading the way but the under-performing Chang and Ko still had too much for them. The Taiwanese will need to step it up a fair bit if they are to be contesting the big prizes at the weekend.
The 2013 888.com World Cup of Pool runs from Tuesday September 17 to Sunday, September 22 at the famous York Hall in Bethnal Green, East London. The field features 32 teams from 31 countries in a single elimination format. The total prize fund is US$250,000 with $60,000 going to the eventual champions.
Play continues this evening afternoon with one more first round match and two second round matches:
The 2013 World Cup of Pool runs from 17 – 22 September and takes place at the York Hall, London. For those wanting to watch the action in person, all tickets are available from www.seetickets.com (Search ‘World Cup of Pool’)
