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Dynamic Billard Lasko Open – Day One Complete

Chris Melling

Day one is complete at the Dynamic Billiard Laško Open as a whopping 215 matches took place across 28 tables in double elimination play. With a big field of 217 players gathered in Slovenia, the play was unrelenting as stars of the game, seasoned pros and young up-and-comers battled to avoid an early trip to the one loss side.

An opening match defeat generally means a minimum of a further six wins to reach the last 32 single elimination stage, while staying on the winners’ side throughout means that only three victories are needed to reach a similar stage.

Hosted by the smart Hotel Thermana Park, there were a few big names that succumbed on the opening day. English duo of Chris Melling and Darren Appleton both lost; to Spain’s evergreen David Alcaide and rising Polish star Daniel Maciol respectively, which puts them both under pressure on day two. Former Euro Tour winner, Finland’s Petri Makkonen, also fell early, losing 9-8 to young Greek player Nick Chatoupis. The Finn bounced back winning his next match but has it all to do on Sunday.

Petri Makkonen

The seasoned Polish duo of Karol Skowerski and Mateusz Sniegocki also suffered defeats. Wiktor Zielinski, winner of the last Euro Tour event – in Treviso last November – was beaten 9-2 in a shock upset by fellow countryman Kamil Szaszor. 2021 Euro Tour finalist and European Under 21 Champion Aleksa Pecelj of Croatia also lost his opener and will have it all to do on Sunday.

On the winners’ side, most of the big names here in Lasko progressed without a stutter including Joshua Filler, Eklent Kaci, Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz, and Alexander Kazakis. Play gets underway in earnest on Sunday morning as the field play down to the final 16 competitors.

The tournament concludes on Monday 28th February, starting at the round of 16 and playing down to the championship match. This is a new time slot for the tour, made to accommodate a live TV broadcast, initiated for 2022.

This the first of six events in the 2022 Dynamic Billiard Euro Tour series and players battle for Tour ranking points, as well as world ranking points for the newly implemented system operated by Matchroom Sport.

All the matches can be viewed live at www.kozoom.com
Results, live scoring and draw are available at www.epbf.com

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New European 8-Ball Champions are Tkach, Gorst and Pehlivanovic

Sanjin Pehlivanovic, Kristina Tkach and Fedor Gorst

The titles at the 8-ball individuals at the Dynamic Billard European Championships for Youth at the Golden Tulip Jagershorst Hotel in Leende, The Netherlands, have been taken. Kristina Tkach (RUS) won the girls division, Fedor Gorst (RUS) took the U19 and Sanjin Pehlivanovic (BIH) went for Gold in the U17.
 
In the U19, Russia’s Fedor Gorst had one very good day today. First, he defeated Kamil Szaszor (POL) in the quarterfinal-match 7:4. Then, he went ahead and wiped the floor with the defending Champion Patrick Hofmann (GER) 7:1. Hofmann could not make a ball on his break and Gorst ran out everything that was possible and even some racks that seemed impossible. In the final match, he met Daniel Maciol (POL). That match was as dominant by Gorst as the semi-final before. He just made no mistakes and had a very good break shot which allowed him to run his racks when it was his turn to break. Since his opponent could not benefit from his break shot, the final match turned into a one-man-show for Fedor Gorst which is clearly displayed by the high final result.
 
Top Eight Players U19 8-Ball
1. Fedor Gorst (RUS)
2. Daniel Maciol (POL)
3. Patrick Hofmann (GER)
Mark Magi (EST)
5. Kamil Szaszor (POL)
Kasper Ostlund (SWE)
Aleksa Pecelj (SRB)
Domagoj Loncarek (CRO)
 
In the U17, the final match was played be Wiktor Zielinski and Sanjin Pehlivanovic (BIH). They already played the final match in 8-ball last year in Albania as well as this year’s straight pool final. Last year, Pehlivanovic won; this year, Zielinski took the title. Their third encounter was promising to be a thrilling and exciting match. And that promise was kept. After the first 8 racks, the score was all square at 4:4. Rack 9 was opened by Zielinski. He had two balls down and a good layout in front of him. That was the perfect chance for him to get to the hill first. But while he was pocketing his solids, he created a problem with the 7-ball. When he tried to solve it, he hid the cue ball behind a striped ball and committed a foul. This was an unforced error and Pehlivanovic used his chance as cold as ice and ran the rack, taking a 5:4 lead himself now. In rack 10, Pehlivanovic executed the break shot. An interesting incident happened there. The referee racked the 8-ball in the wrong position of the rack. Neither the referee nor Pehlivanovic seemed to notice the mistake. After Pehlivanovic had executed the break shot and pocketed a ball with a nice layout in front of him, Zielinski protested against the break shot. The referee was of the opinion that no player should get an advantage from such a situation and decided to continue the rack since the protest was too late. Pehlivanovic ran all balls and won the rack and the match 6:4 after a thrilling match over Wiktor Zielinski.
 
Top Eight Players U17 8-Ball
1. Sanjin Pehlivanovic (BIH)
2. Wiktor Zielinski (POL)
3. Jere Virtaranta (FIN)
Szymon Kural (POL)
5. Christoffer Lentz (DEN)
Karo Langstroem (FIN)
Andreas-Steen Bonnelykke (DEN)
Simon Thomassen (NOR)
 
In the girls division, Kristina Tkach was again the player who set the marks here in Leende. In the whole 8-ball tournament, she lost four (4!) single racks in total. She won the final match 5:0 over Weronika Karwik (POL) after having also whitewashed Darya Siranchuk (UKR) in the semi-final. Her outstanding performance makes the girls division this year a bit predictable unfortunately. However, she is a well deserved Champion and once again showed her class and her superiority.
 
Top Eight Players Girls 8-Ball
1. Kristina Tkach (RUS)
2. Weronika Karwik (POL)
3. Darya Siranchuk (UKR)
Kinga Pietrzak (POL)
5. Paula Bachmeier (GER)
Cindy Keller (SUI)
Nina Torvund (NOR)
Viktorija Gurova (RUS)
 
Earlier today, the 9-ball competition started with matches in the individual divisions. In the girls division, Nina Torvund (NOR) defeated Palina Chernik (BLR) 6:4 in the first winner’s round. In the U17, 12-year-old Szymon Kural (POL) got the better of Sanjin Pehlivanovic (BIH) and won 6:4. In the U19, Fedor Gorst (RUS) will meet Daniel Maciol (POL) in the first winner’s round to be played tomorrow at 09:00 CET.
 
Every day, one match from the events will be shown LIVE on the Facebook page of the EPBF. 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 23 tables on the internet LIVE. The FB live matches are announced on the EPBF Facebook page around noon every day. Results and schedules can be found at www.europeanpoolchampionships.eu so why not come and check out all the LIVE action of the Dynamic Billard European Championships for Youth.
 
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.europeanpoolchampionships.eu, visit us on Facebook or check out our youtube channel for regular news clips or contact our press office press@epbf.com.

Ekonomopoulos Through To Eurotour Last 16 With a Stellar Performance

Nikos Ekonomopoulos

Nikos Ekonomopoulos (GRE) is through to the stage of the final 16 players single elimination at the Dynamic Billard Italian Open in Treviso. With an outstanding performance so far today, he defeated  Daniel Maciol (POL) 9:5, then Mario He (AUT) in a 9:8 thriller and finally "Fabulous" Fabio Petroni (ITA) 9:5 in the single elimination rounds. Ekonomopoulos seems to be on fire these days and he will face Marc Bijsterbosch (NED).
 
Other remarkable results from today include Abdullah Al-Youssef (KUW) eliminating favored Mika Immonen (FIN) with 9:8 in loser’s round 3. Immonen had also been defeated by your Dutch player Tim De Ruyter (NED) in the round before. Al-Youssef then went on and encountered Jakub Sawicki (POL) who he also eliminated with 9:2. In the next round, the loser’s qualification round, Al-Youssef lost to Mieszko Fortunski (POL) 5:9.
 
The Nr.1 ranked player, Niels Feijen (NED) is also still on track with his mission to remain Nr.1 in the European rankings. Today, he won matches against Christian Sparrenloev-Fischer (SWE) and Wojciech Szewczyk (POL) to book his seat among the final 16 players of the Dynamic Billard Italian Open.
 
Up and rising German star player Can Salim-Giasar (GER) is also among the last 16 men standing. He took down Kamil Szaszor (POL), then lost to Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz (ESP) but fought his way back with victories over Manuel Gama (POR) and Woytek Trajdos (POL).
 
Mark Gray (GBR) is also among the elite group of the last 16 players. He made his way with victories over Omran-Saleem Abdullah (KUW), his roommate Daryl Peach (GBR) and Jani Siekkinen (FIN).
 
The event will continue tomorrow morning with the round of the last 16 players single elimination. Also, the Women’s tournament will start tomorrow morning at 9:00 CET with the first round matches. The tournament is played on 20 tables of which 12 will be in a livestream. In order to be able to follow all the action LIVE, premium membership can be purchased 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 eurotouronline.com, visit us on Facebook or check out our youtube channel for regular news clips or contact our press office.