Karlo Dalmatin (CRO) lost to Maksim Dudanets (RUS) with 8:9 in a heartbreaker at the Dynamic Billard Dutch Open Euro-Tour in Leende, The Netherlands.
The first round match started out as expected. Dudanets had a grip on the match and took a quick and comfortable 6:1 lead over Dalmatin. It looked like the Croatian would receive a tough bashing by the Russian kid. But then Dalmatin somehow recovered and started playing more focussed while Dudanets committed some negligent mistakes. „These pockets do not allow mistakes“, stated Dudanets right after the match. And he definitely knew what he was talking about. His easy going allowed Dalmatin to get a foot back in the door. Better performance together with a bit of luck turned the match which started out as a one-sided show into a thriller. Trailing 4:7, Dalmatin found himself on the table without any position. Dudanets had played a safety shot and Dalmatin needed to hit the 4-ball over one rail. In fact, he did not only hit the correct ball but also pocketed the 9-ball unwanted in the side pocket in order to turn the scoreboard to 5:7. That obviously caught Dudanets a bit off-track. The Russian struggled and started to commit easy mistakes himself. Leading 7:5, he missed an easy 6-ball and Dalmatin accepted the gift, coming closer with 6:7. Rack number 14 was a break and run by Dalmatin. The tension got high in the match. Dudanets answered that action with a break and run himself to get on the hill, leading 8:7. In rack 16 again, Dudanets had the chance to finish the match but he once again missed a makable shot. He played a poor position on the 4-ball and consequently missed it. Dalmatin got his nerves together and all of a sudden the match was a hill-hill affair at 8:8 with Dudanets’ break to come up. The drama seemed to be complete for the young Russian when the cue ball scratched after his break shot. All balls were spread wide open on the table with Dalmatin having ball in hand. But whatever the Croatian was thinking, he took a huge risk and tried to cheat the pocket on the 3-ball in order to get a better position on the 4-ball. The 3-ball did not fall in the pocket and Dudanets got back to the slate. „I know I lost focus in the middle of the match“, said Dudanets, „and the game started punishing me. Rightfully so! However, in the end I was a bit lucky and still managed to win the match somehow“. That was very true and displayed in the final rack. Dudanets once again missed the 6-ball and Dalmatin could not benefit from it. He also missed the 6-ball and Dudanets finished him with 9:8 in the end. Dudanets was victorious over Dalmatin but the match was by far not as clear as it would have been expected beforehand.
Other remarkable results from today’ first round matches include former junior World 9-Ball Champion Christian Goetemann (GER) winning 9:6 over local player Tim Jonkman (NED). A bit of a surprise was the 9:8 victory of Nicolas van Parys (BEL) over Michal Turkowski (POL).
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Euro-Tour’s ranked #1 player Mark Gray (GBR) just notched a 9:5 victory over up and rising Joshua Filler (GER) in the winner’s qualification round of the Dynamic Billard Albanian Open in the Expo Center in Tirana, Albania.
Mark Gray is always a hot favorite for the title in any Euro-Tour event. Currently leading the rankings, the Brit still was favored in this match with Filler who is regarded as „the“ rising star in European Billiards by many. The signs for the match were on the wall: This was going to be a tough battle for both of the two players. Indeed, Filler was a great challenge for Gray over a long period in the match. After ten racks, the score was 5:5. This proved that none of the two really got any momentum until then. Filler was at the table having won the safety scenario in that rack and had a clear layout in front of him. He incomprehensibly missed an easy 3-ball and gave the potential lead away to Gray who thanked him and went ahead with 6:5. The next break was Filler’s. He had balls down but no shot at the 2-ball. So again, a safety exchange opened the rack. Gray played the better shots and took w two-point lead with 7:5. Then Filler took a time-out since he needed to get going now otherwise Gray would be too far ahead of him. Rack 13 saw again Gray as the better safety player and he managed to win that rack too, climbing on the hill 8:5. Now it was Filler’s break and his last chance to somehow turn the tide in the match. Filler had a good break and a nice layout in front of him. However, he again missed an easy shot on the 4-ball and gave the rack away to Gray who took the rack and the match 9:5 over Filler. In this match, Filler committed too many mistakes and Gray was the deserved winner in the end.
Other remarkable results from today include Ronald Regli (SUI) eliminating Mario He (AUT) from the tournament in loser’s round 3 with 9:8. Mario He, being the winner of the last event in North Cyprus, met Regli who was the runner-up from Austria, the event before. Two high-class players that one would not have expected in the early loser’s rounds. But they both already lost once so they had to joust on the left side of the flowchart. At 8:8, He played a poor safety shot which allowed Regli to run out and stay alive in the tournament. In the next round he will face Mark Mägi (EST) who also managed to win his last match with 9:8 over Michal Turkowski (POL).
Earlier today, Karlo Dalmatin (CRO) ended the hopes of Daniel Tangudd (SWE), overrunning him with 9:6. Alen Muratovic (BIH) sneaked past Dimitri Jungo (SUI) with a 9:8 triumph over the Suisse. Ermal Dylie (ALB) also kept a foot in the door, winning his match with Rui-Edgar Franco (POR) 9:8. Dylie’s teammate Arjan Matrizi (ALB) also stayed alive in the event defeating French legend Stephan Cohen (FRA) 9:7. Jim Chawki (SWE) send Nick Malai (GRE) home by sweeping him 9:7.
In the Albanian Women Open, Katarzyna Wesolowska (POL) pipped her teammate Oliwia Czuprynska (POL) 7:6 in the first round. She will play Sandra Baumgartner (AUT) in winner’s round 1 at 15:30 CET today. Baumgartner remained the upper hand over Yini Gaspar (SUI) 7:4 in her first match. Diana Khodjaeva (BEL) shelled Palina Chernik (BLR) 7:1 in round 1 and will now encounter Kateryna Polovinchuk (UKR) in the next round.
The Euro-Tour is played on 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 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 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.
Nick Malai (GRE) defeated Austrian top player Albin Ouschan (AUT) with 9:6 in the first winner’s round of the Dynamic Billard Austrian Open.
There seems to be a curse on Austrian players here in St. Johann. The tournament is held here for the 5th time and never has an Austrian player been able to win the open event. This year, things were looking prosperous for Albin Ouschan. He came here as nr.1 World ranked player. But he could not find his game at all. To the contrary, he played a lot of bad shots, committed fouls, missed easy balls and played bad safety shots. Ouschan seemed to be disgusted with his own performance. Malai capitalized for that. He also started out with some mistakes but then he got momentum since Ouschan left him too many chances. It all started in rack two when Malai missed an easy 8-ball and left it there for Ouschan. The Austrian pocketed the 8-ball and then missed the 9-ball. It can hardly be told when Ouschan missed so many shots the last time. After a while, Malai got going and his break started to work better. Whatever Ouschan did, he could not get into his own rhythm. Being in the lead 7:3, Malai tried to take the shortcut on the hill and attempted a combination shot on the 9-ball. He failed and gave the table to Ouschan. The Austrian ran the rack and the crowd was hoping for him to start a comeback. But already in the next rack, Ouschan missed another easy shot to give the table to Malai who went on the hill with 8:4. Then, Malai missed an 8-ball and Ouschan managed to pull two racks back from Malai. However, one could tell by the body language of Ouschan that he had almost given up on himself. At 6:8, Malai took the final point and won the match with 9:6. „I have really benefitted from my opponent’s mistakes“, stated Malai after the match, „the match was not good but I handled the situation better.“ „Luck was also a factor in this match, but I think in the end my break worked better and that’s why I won the match in the end“, Malai added.
Other remarkable results include Marek Kudlik (POL) defeating Karl Boyes (GBR) in the first winner’s round 9:3. Daniel Tangudd (SWE), member of Team EUROPE at the recent Atlantic Challenge Cup, won his two matches of the day 9:8 over Mats Schjetne (NOR) and 9:2 over Sebastian Batkowski (POL). Petri Makkonen (FIN) took down Karlo Dalmatin (CRO) 9:7.
The current nr.1 ranked player of the Euro-Tour, Niels „The Terminator“ Feijen (NED) easily won his first appearance at the Dynamic Billard Austrian Open 2015 with a 9:4 victory over Damian Adamus (POL). BCA Hall of Famer Ralf Souquet (GER) also marched on into the second winner’s round by smashing Salah Ziyaei (UAE) 9:2.
The action will continue tomorrow at 09:00 with the matches of the second loser’s round.
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THREE of the big guns of the sport enjoyed victories at the Betway World Cup of Pool as the first round continued at the Mountbatten Centre, Portsmouth. Holland, USA and England A all had wins and will take their place in the second round.
Home team England A – Darren Appleton and Karl Boyes – had a huge scare as they nearly succumbed to Spain, scraping through in the deciding rack of the match. Spain had taken a 5-3 lead in front of a lively crowd but the English levelled it at 5-5.
Francisco Diaz for Spain, though, played a daring 4/9 combination which put the Spaniards on the hill. His partner David Alcaide just couldn’t get the requisite number of balls over the head string and control of the table passed back to the English. It was a lifeline that they gratefully accepted to level the match at 6-6.
An inconclusive break from Appleton saw Spain back to the table for a push out. Both teams had visits before Boyes missed a bank on the 2 ball to give Spain a great chance. Alcaide though, failed to pot the 4 ball and with the balls lying invitingly on the table, the English pair cleared to take a nervy win.
“I am absolutely amazed that he missed that ball at the end. I think he tried to do something with the cue ball to get shape on the next ball but he could have just run it through, but that is the pressure,” said a relieved Appleton.
“The last rack was really tense and really edgy but besides that it was a pretty good match. To get through at the end like we did, we are very happy. That is the type of luck that you are going to need if you are going to win this tournament, and hopefully that will kick us on now and we can go further in the tournament,” he added.
2013 runners-up Holland got their campaign off to a successful start as they had too much in the tank for the Swedish pair of Andreas Gerwen and Tomas Larsson. Nick Van Den Berg kept things on track as his partner Niels Feijen was a little sloppy in the early stages, but the reigning World 9 Ball Champion and World No.1 came with some good shots to close out the win.
“We know we are both in form and among the favourites this week. But you cannot expect anything, to get to the final is a high expectation but we want to win this,” said Feijen.
Van den Berg added, “We are in form as players but we have to make every ball and take every chance you get. If you have some tough shots early on you can’t make them all of the time and in a race to seven you can crash out at any time. We tried our best and we did well.”
Team USA – Earl Strickland and Shane Van Boening – made light work of Croatia as they waltzed through the racks to take a 7-2 win and a second round match up against Russia on Thursday evening.
The match went to 6-0 fairly quickly before Strickland scratched to bring the Croatians – Ivica Putnik and Karlo Dalmatin – back to the table. They took that one and the next but it was only a matter of time and it was Strickland who downed the winning 9 ball.
Strickland said, “We played virtually flawless apart from a few bad safeties early in the match. It is the nature of the game, you don’t know when it is going to change and it can change at any moment and you lose momentum. I made a couple of mistakes early on but overall we played pretty well. We don’t have to talk a lot, we pretty much know where we both want the cue ball.”
Now in its ninth year, the Betway World Cup of Pool features 32 two-player teams from around the world battling it out for a $250,000 prize fund. The defending champions are the Philippines who will be among the favourites to claim a record-breaking fourth World Cup.
All tickets are priced at £5 (afternoons) and £10 evenings and are available from the venue or www.seetickets.com
Second day in Sarajevo starts with loser’s bracket matches
Friday, 02 March 2012: In a thrilling encounter, Sandor Tot (SRB) ousted Mario He (AUT) with 9:7.
The match was a close battle at any stage. Both players played at equal strength. They both committed some mistakes and did not really perform to their top level. No wonder that none of the two was able to gain a clear advantage over the other. In the 9th rack, at a score of 4:4, Tot pocketed the 9-ball and let the cue ball travel into the pocket, using to much backspin. “I would always play the shot that way”Tot said after the match, “I don’t like slow rolling the balls in. It’s just not my styleâ€. Instead of being up 5:4, Tot was now trailing with the same result. But that did not destroy his match. It looked like he continued being completely unimpressed by his fatal mistake. In the 11th rack, He lost the cue ball in a very unlucky way and somehow “gave”the rack back to Tot. The score then was 6:6. Tot broke but had a dry break shot with He getting to the table. He ran the table which was spread open nicely and took a 7:6 advantage over Tot. But then the Serbian played extremely strong. He ran two racks in a row, making the score 8:7 in his favour. In the 16th rack, He broke, had three balls down and a good shot at the 2-ball. But he missed it. That was the end for him in that match. Tot ran out and won the match with 9:7.
Other notable results include Wojciech Szewczyk (POL) losing 8:9 to Carlo Dalmatin (CRO). Steve Leisen (LUX) terminated the hopes of his teammate from Trier, Marko Vogel (GER) with 9:7. Daryl Peach (GBR) ousted Ivica Putnik (CRO) just with 9:8. 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.eu , follow us on twitter @EPBF_News or contact our press office.
