2021 American 14.1 Straight Pool Championship – Ralph Eckert vs Lee Vann Corteza
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DrillRoom, the first AI-powered billiard training app launches a major update
OrangeLoops, a software development company, is launching a new update for DrillRoom, the first mobile application that uses artificial intelligence and augmented reality to track and record shots & misses in pocket billiard drills.
The iOS application provides a wide selection of drills in speed control, shotmaking, cue direction, and positional play. It generates AI-based game stats that players can review after each drill or in their profile’s dashboard. During the experience, players are assisted by a virtual coach that provides audio feedback in real-time.
The update includes, among other improvements:
- New coach voices from Jennifer Barretta, Ralph Eckert (in German), and David Muñoz (in Spanish).
- Improved table framing and lighting scoring.
- Improved engine precision for real-time analysis of shots.
- Drill instructions can be viewed once a drill has started through the help button.
There’s a new subscription service, called DrillRoom Pro, that includes premium features such as:
- Game Analysis with detailed shot analysis diagram and shot stats available once a drill has finished.
- Shot video clips that can be viewed and shared after each drill.
- Challenges such as Golf Pool, Centerfield Infinite Drill, and the Billiard University Exam I.
- Plus, more than +30 new drills created with the assistance of pro players, such as Dr. Dave Billiards.
Access to DrillRoom Pro is available for USD 4.99/mo or USD 39.99/yr (33% off).
Some feedback from the users:
“As far as using augmented reality to train for pool, many solutions are dicey. DrillRoom has been the best I’ve seen so far. It’s simple to use and works well overall.”
“This is awesome for home training and pool rooms that can use the app on a designated table with a TV close by for casting.”
The developers are working on implementing more community-driven features, such as leaderboards and user-created drills.
The application can be downloaded for free on the App Store. It is available for both iPhone and iPad.
Austria’s Lechner, Finland’s Siekkinen and Spain’s Ruiz lead the pack at 14.1 Championships
Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz (Erwin Dionisio)
Three of the 2019 American 14:1 Straight Pool Championships’ competitors made it through the event’s three-day Round Robin phase (Oct. 22-24) with undefeated (6-0) records. They were arguably not the names you might have expected from this particular field of 42 entrants, which included six former winners of the championship title – Mika Immonen (2007), Johnny Archer (2011), John Schmidt (2012), Thorsten Hohmann (2013), Darren Appleton (’14 & ’15), and Neils Feijen (2016). Two-time runner up Danny Barouty (to Ed Hodan in 2006 and Bob Maidhof in 2008) was competing, as were runner-ups Shaun Wilkie (to Danny Harriman in 2010), John Schmidt (to Archer, 2011), Archer (to Hohmann, 2013), Hohmann (to Schmidt in 2012, Darren Appleton in 2015 & Klenti Kaci in 2018), Immonen (to Feijen in 2016) and Dennis Orcollo (to Konrad Juszczyszyn in 2017).
Instead, Austria’s Max Lechner, Finland’s Jan Siekkinen and Spain’s Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz went undefeated through the Round Robin phase of the event and were awarded a bye in the 24-entrant single elimination phase which began today (Friday) and will continue through tomorrow (Saturday) at Q Master Billiards in Virginia Beach, VA. Lechner was paired in his seven-entrant round robin flight and won his six race-to-125 matches by an average of 102 balls. He gave up, in order, one to David Alcaide, 66 to Marc Vidal, 24 to Tom Walter, seven to Blair Levandowski and 41 to Don Polo.
Siekkinen competed in what was arguably the event’s toughest group of seven and went through Thorsten Hohmann (43), Johnny Archer (81), Lee Van Corteza (59), Sean Morgan (21), Neil Gold (65) and Pascal Dufresne (44); an average of 52. Ruiz got by John Schmidt (66), Petri Makkonen (25), Bob Hunter (55), Mike Badsteubner (27), Reymart Lim (72) and Michael Frank (-1); average of 40.
The remaining five competitors to receive opening round byes into single elimination were all 5-1 in the round robin competition. Ruslan Chinakhov lost his opening round match to Neils Feijen, one of two matches that Feijen won by shutout, 125-0 (the other was against Bob Madenjian). Chinakhov went on to down Albin Ouschan, Ralph Eckert and deliver a second shutout to Madenjian, before defeating Holden Chin and Darren Frank. Dennis Orcollo lost his opening match to Darren Appleton in one of the round robin’s closest games, 125-116. Orcollo went on to meet and defeat Maksim Dudanets, Marco Teutscher, Danny Barouty, Earl Herring and Steve Matthieu.
Feijen was the only member of this year’s European Mosconi Cup team who competed in this event, and while he did chalk up two shutout victories, he did lose his opening match to Albin Ouschan 125-44. In addition to the shutouts, he defeated Ralph Eckert, Holden Chin and D. Frank. The sport’s acknowledged comedian, Alex Pagulayan opened the round robin proceedings against Mika Immonen, and together, they produced the round robin’s official closest game, won by The Lion 125-119. Pagulayan went on to defeat Max Eberle before losing his one match to Shaun Wilkie in another close match 125-104. He finished with victories over Michael Yednak, Steve Lillis and Jay McWorter.
As noted above, Immonen’s path to his 5-1 round robin record began with a defeat by Pagulayan. The Iceman would go on to down Eberle, Wilkie, Yednak, Lillis and McWorter.
Friday morning competition in the single elimination phase saw eight matches scheduled. Five of the 16 competitors had also logged 5-1 records in the round robin phase; tie breakers were head-to-head results and beyond that, total ball counts. John Schmidt was scheduled to face Maksim Dudanets, who finished the round robin phase with a 3-3 record. The marquee match was likely to be Albin Ouschan (5-1) against Johnny Archer (4-2), who closed out Thursday evening’s matches with a necessary win of Sean Morgan that gave him the record he needed to advance.
The Darren Appleton (5-1) and Shaun Wilkie (4-2) combination was garnering interest and was selected as the Billiard Sports Network’s Friday morning choice for live broadcast. Ralf Souquet, competing in the round robin flight with the 6-0 Lechner, advanced with his 5-1 match record to face Reymart Lim (3-3). Marco Teutscher (5-1) was scheduled to face Ralph Eckert (3-3).
Remaining matches pitted Lee Van Corteza against Petri Makkonen, Thorsten Hohmann versus Marc Vidal, and David Alcaide squaring off against Max Eberle.
American 14.1 Straight Pool Championship Final Sixteen
Ralf Souquet (File photo courtesy of EPBF)
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.”
Ralf Souquet recorded the opening round’s largest margin of victory, eliminating Reymart Lim 150-12. Souquet moved into a match against Alex Pagulayan. Marco Teuscher eliminated Ralph Eckert 150-57 and moved into a meetup with Mika Immonen. David Alcaide downed Max Eberle 150-66 and prepared to meet the last of the round robin’s undefeated players, Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz.
Lee Van Corteza moved right into his match against Lechner, once he had completed his 150-98 victory over Petri Makkonen.
Straight pool fans who can’t attend the event in person can watch free streaming coverage online at Billiard Sports Network.
Draw Made For US Open 9-Ball Championship
The draw for the 43rd US Open 9-Ball Championship has been made, with Jayson Shaw to begin his defense against Marcus Weston at Mandalay Bay Resort, Las Vegas on Sunday, April 21.
The draw was seeded with a golf-style category system adopted, which took in rankings from across the pool world including WPA World Ranking, BCA Standings and Fargo Rating. As defending champion Shaw was seeded No.1, while five-time US Open champion Shane Van Boening is seeded second as the highest ranked American player.
Broadcast details for the 2019 US Open 9-Ball Championship will be announced shortly. Live rack-by-rack scoring will be available throughout the event at www.matchroompool.com thanks to Matchroom Multi Sport’s partnership with CueScore.
The draw, brackets and match schedule can be viewed now at https://cuescore.com/tournament/US+Open+9-ball+Championship/5185877
Note: Should any players featured in the draw not participate in the event, they will be replaced directly by the first player on the event waiting list to accept a spot in the tournament, irrespective of where the new player would have featured in any seeding category.
All matches at the US Open 9-Ball Championship takes place April 21-26 at Mandalay Bay Resort, Las Vegas. Matches are race to 11, winner breaks, except the final which is race to 13. The draw and match schedule for the first stage of the tournament is available now at www.matchroompool.com.
Tickets for the 43rd US Open 9-Ball Championship are still available at www.matchroompool.com from as little as $10 with VIP packages also available for the final three days of the tournament.
The tournament will be split into two stages with the full field playing double elimination down to the final 16 from Sunday April 21st until Tuesday April 23rd across multiple tables. From Wednesday April 24th until Friday April 26th the final 16 players will play straight knockout in the TV Arena in front of a global television audience.
US OPEN | ROUND ONE DRAW
Jayson Shaw vs. Marcus Westen
Radwan Jameel R Sorouji vs. Tommy Tokoph
Naoyuki Oi vs. Marco Vignola
Martin Daigle vs. Patrick Flemming
Angelo Salzano vs. Corey Deuel
Peter Busarac vs. Amar Kang
Paul Jaurez vs. Justin Bergman
James Aranas vs. Roderick Malone
Masato Yoshioka vs. Erik Hjorleifson
Stephen Folan vs. Jochen Kluge
Jon Demet vs. Toru Kurabayashi
Stanley Walton vs. Paul Duell
Omar Al-Shaheen vs. David Dimmitt
Amer Al-Darbani vs. Mateusz Sniegoki
Dali Lin vs. Fabio Rizzi
Jason Hitzfeld vs. Jeremy Jones
Philipp Stojanovic vs. Steve Van Ness
Dalibor Nikolin vs. Francisco Sanchez Ruiz
(Kevin) Cheng Yu Hsuan vs. Christopher Lawson
Mohammed Ali N Al Eid vs. Ivo Aarts
Rodney Morris vs. Ken Kuwana
Deomark Alpajora vs. Radoslaw Babica
Marc Bijsterbosch vs. Ritchie Ogawa
Gary Urinoski vs. Danny Olson
Toan Nguyen vs. Bahram Lofty
Giuseppe Iacobucci vs. Ko Pin-Yi
Carlo Biado vs. Fahad Salem N Alharbi
Kenichi Uchigaki vs. Tyler Fleshman
Matt Edwards vs. Marco Penta
Hideaki Arita vs. Maksim Dudanets
Jeff De Luna vs. Torsten Schmitt
Yip Kin Ling Leo vs. Dennis Orcollo
David Alcaide vs. Jorg Kellner
Siming Chen vs. Mohamed Baabad
Jamal Oussi vs. Hoang Duong Quoc
Liu Haitao vs. Patrick Griess
Mike Stalk vs. John Schmidt
Justin Espinosa vs. Nguyen Phuc Long
Koh Yong Lee Randolph vs. Eklent Kaci
Ko Ping-Chung vs. Sami Koylu
Robert Hewings vs. Michael Dechaine
Luis Guerrero vs. Hayato Hijikata
Michael Hutcheson vs. Thorsten Hohmann
Jani Siekkinen vs. Damian Pongpanik
Sangin Pehlivanovic vs. Bryan Farah
Ching-Shun Yang vs. Milos Verkic
Jason McClain vs. Alexander Kazakis
Thomas Welle vs. David Anderson
Tom Griffith vs. Roman Hybler
Jeffery Ignacio vs. Lefteris Georgiou
Hsu Kai-Lun vs. Adam King
Wu Kun Lin vs. Kuo Szu-Ting
Darren Appleton vs. Terry Spalding
Patrick Holtz vs. Richard Halliday
Tyler Styer vs. Kelii Chuberko
John Barton vs. Zachary Bos
Johann Dominik Hiber vs. Wu Jiaqing
Dennis Grabe vs. Lee Heuwagen
Liu Ri Teng vs. Gwyn Spooner
Arnar Peterson vs. Chang Yu-Lung
Wang Can vs. Dejan Sipkovski
Jonathan Mcdowell Pakieto vs. Francisco Bustamante
Florida Pro Tour vs. Aloysius Yapp
Jason Theron vs. Katsuyuki Yamamoto
Stan Tourangeau vs. Ruslan Chinakov
Wojciech Szewczyk vs. Renato Camantigue
Brendan Ng vs. Paddy McLoughlin
Chang Jung-Lin vs. Roland Stock
John Moody Sr vs. Adam Lilley
Nick Malaj vs. Dimitri Jungo
Francesco Candela vs. Tomasz Kaplan
Mario He vs. Michael Pruitt
Max K Reyes vs. Billy Thorpe
Dang Jin Hu vs. Ben Crawley
Jamie White vs. Tony Chohan
Gabe Owen vs. Gary Lutman
Elliot Sanderson vs. Robbie Capito
Brendon Bektashi vs. Hsu Jui-An
Patrick Mannillo vs. Melinda Huang
Ryo Yokawa vs. Chris Melling
Ralf Souquet vs. Molrudee Kasemchaiyanan
Seiji Kuwajima vs. Simon Pickering
Steven Lingafelter vs. Albin Ouschan
Philipps Yee vs. Johann Chua
Mieszko Fortunksi vs. Chris McDaniel
Robby Foldvari vs. Yukio Akagariyama
Abdullah Saeed O Alshammari vs. Shane van Boening
Ralph Eckert’s book “The Final Freedom – Reflections of a Master Student” is now available in English
Ralph’s book, which has been well received by the German-speaking audience, is now available in English from SciWie Publishing in Europe. SciWie will ship books to the USA and anywhere else in the world, but are looking to find the right business partners to have the book printed in the USA (or other locations), rather than shipping across the Atlantic. This would save overseas customers time and shipping costs.
Ralph Eckert: “Getting this project to happen took a great deal of effort. It began with finding the right translator. In addition to being an experienced professional, fluent in both languages, this person also needed to be familiar with the world of pool & billiards. After a lengthy search, I finally found Mr. Allan Wier II from Niles, Michigan, who did an incredible job! Now it’s up to my English-speaking audience to buy the book, read it and see if they like it as much as my German-speaking readers. To all players: it’s not so much a question of whether you can afford to buy the book, but can you afford not to read it? Quite likely you will find yourself competing against players who have read my book. The book isn’t just meant for pool & billiard players, it has its share of fans outside the world of pool and billiard world, and has even been recommended by one of the best stage directors from Europe!”
The book costs US$ 26.00 (€ 24.95 plus shipping) and can be ordered by email: info@sciwie.de
The Book
In 26 chapters, this book reflects 26 selected philosophical nuggets of wisdom that Mr. Kim, wise and experienced Chinese pool player and billiards establishment proprietor, imparted to the young Ralph beginning in 1982 as his mentor and father figure. These words of wisdom changed the young man’s life and shaped his career as a professional pool player. Their spiritual content is grounded in Eastern philosophy and Asian wisdom. Mr. Kim, the master, shared these aphorisms with his student Ralph whenever he grappled with critical situations.
It is our entire personality that determines our specific actions. We are by no means aware of all of the factors influencing our behavior. However, our consciousness is the deciding factor on the path to success. Only self-awareness and the resulting will to change can guide us to our goal. It is almost irrelevant which activity it is we are striving for perfection in; when we ignore the basic principles for success failure looms large at every turn. This book applies for any and all activities.
Since adolescence, Ralph Eckert’s passion has been professional pool. Considered to be the most difficult game of skill in the world, pool places the highest demands on hand-eye coordination, technique, tactical reasoning and – mental strength! Using this fascinating game as an example, the author reflects the principles of his master in a manner that is both focused and entertaining. Of course, the book also includes his descriptions of classical critical situations and how to handle them.
When we play, every fiber of our being is involved and the great thinkers have always known: You will find out more about people when they are playing than any other time. Thus, this inspirational book is meant not just for pool players, but for all those who take charge of their lives and follow their own path to satisfaction. Without fail, everyone who reads this book will find useful information for their own everyday reality.
The Author
Ralph Eckert was born in 1965 in Mannheim, Germany and lives in Berlin now. He has been playing pool since 1982 and has been making a living playing pool, teaching and giving trick shot exhibitions for many years. Ralph played on the German national tour for a number of years and had a great deal of success in the German premier league. He has also played in the Austrian premier league. In 2000 he was ranked number one on the Euro Tour and was a world trick shot champion in 2004. He has a worldwide reputation as an instructor and is active primarily abroad for various national teams and private individuals. His first book, “Modern Pool” came out in 1995 and continues to be the standard instruction manual in Germany. Additional specialist publications (PAT/IPAT) followed. Ralph audited courses in sports psychology at the University of Heidelberg for many years, discovering the parallels and connections between Mr. Kim’s instructions and modern sports psychology. Also increasingly in demand as a commentator in live-stream transmissions, his life continues to revolve around pool. He still competes in professional tournaments in the USA and Europe. (His instructions are also available in the actual training App “CheckBilliard”.)
Mr. Kim
Born in 1943 in Korea, Tobias Kim has been living in Heidelberg, Germany since the 70s. His father participated in the resistance movement against the Japanese occupying forces. After years on the run, traveling through Manchuria, Mr. Kim’s family settled in Shanghai. After receiving a classical Chinese education, he attended an elite English boarding school in Macau and subsequently studied Mathematics, Physics and English Language and Literature in New York, Vienna, London and finally in Heidelberg. Mr. Kim was forced to cancel his studies when his parents passed away. In 1982 he opened a billiard café in Ludwigshafen am Rhein and operated a billiards wholesale business. After recovering from a serious stroke in 2007, he retired from business in 2008 and is enjoying a well-deserved retirement now surrounded by his beloved books.
Appleton successfully defends his American 14:1 Straight Pool title
Darren Appleton
A number of competitors currently at work looking to capture the US Open 9-Ball Championship warmed up from October 22-25, about two hours north, at the $20,000-added, 11th Annual American 14:1 Straight Pool Championships. The event's last two champions – Darren Appleton (2014) and Thorsten Hohmann (2013) – were among them, and no one was surprised when they turned out to be the 2015 finalists. Appleton completed an undefeated run through the field of 40, with a victory over Hohmann in those finals, to successfully defend the title that he'd claimed last year. Also competing in this event, and presently, at the US Open, were (among others) former 14:1 champions Johnny Archer (2011) and Mika Immonen (2007).
Hosted by Diamond Billiards in Midlothian, VA, and sponsored by Diamond Billiards and Simonis Cloth, the event featured eight 'flights' of round robin play; five players per 'flight.' Eight winners emerged from the initial round robin battles, while 16 players in either second or third place were seeded in an elimination round.
Going undefeated in their round robin play were Appleton, Thorsten Hohmann, Mika Immonen, and Nick Van Den Berg. Joining them among the eight round robin winners were Dennis Orcollo, Ralph Eckert, Johnny Archer and Jason Klatt.
On one side of the subsequent elimination bracket, Bob Hunter, Mike Davis, Daryl Peach, and Ivo Aarts advanced past Stevie Moore, Niels Feijen, Karl Boyes, and Alan Duty, respectively. On the other side, Warren Kiamco, Kevin Clark, Rodney Morris, and Danny Barouty, eliminated Jayson Shaw, Sean Morgan, Corey Deuel, and Alex Pagulayan.
With victories in races to 125 by Appleton (over Hunter, 51), Orcollo (over Davis, 62), Immonen (over Peach, 96), Aarts (over Eckert, 78), Kiamco (over Van Den Berg, 71), Clark (over Archer, 76), Hohmann (over Morris, 66), and Barouty (over Klatt, 88), the field was down to eight. It went down to four following Appleton's 150-100 victory over Orcollo, Immonen's defeat of Aarts 150-89, Kiamco's win over Clark 150-26, and Hohmann's elimination of Barouty 150-58
Three of the four left were former champions of the event. Appleton defeated the Iceman 150-113, as Hohmann eliminated the only player who wasn't a former champion, Warren Kiamco, 150-65. In the finals, Hohmann was ahead when the scores were still in double digits, 94-83. Appleton, though, gobbled up that 11-point differential, and went on to win it 150-94.
Dynamic Dutch Open – Gorst Wins Terrific Comeback Match Over van den Berg
Fedor Gorst
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.
Dutch Radio DJ Participates in Dynamic Billard Dutch Open
He entered the main arena with a house cue and lost his match to Damianos Giallourakis (GRE) with 0:9…. but it seemed that he was enjoying his time.
The talk is of Frank Dane, a well known Dutch Radio DJ and leisure time pool player. "We love to have a game of 9-ball in between our radio shows“, explained Dane after his match, "and once we were talking about it. We then got a call and me and my friend got invited to this event.“ "Actually, I’m not a pool player at all, everything started from a joke and I just showed up but I must say I really enjoyed my day here. Everyone is so nice and friendly but probably also everyone here would beat me“, added Dane. He was certainly an asset to the Dynamic Billard Dutch Open.
More remarkable results of today include Mateusz Szaszor (POL) defeating favored Nick Malai (GRE) with 9:7. Ralph Eckert (GER) just remained the upper hand over Pawel Misiak (POL), winning with 9:8. Andy Worthington (GBR) got the better of Ivo Aarts (NED) by winning with 9:7. Being 7:8 down, Aarts forfeited the match with 7 balls still remaining on the table.
In the first winner’s round, we had "The Terminator“ Niels Feijen (NED), currently ranked Nr. 1 in the Euro-Tour rankings, snatching his match with 9:3 over Evangelos Vettas (GRE). Feijen’s teammate Nick Van Den Berg (NED) also won with 9:5 over Alan Conway (IRE). Mihai Robert Braga (ROM) delivered a small upset to the event, winning with 9:8 over Karol Skowerski (POL). Young gun Joshua Filler (GER) won his first match clearly by smashing Lars Van Dijk (NED) 9:4. Mark Gray (GBR) took care of Babken Melkonyan (ROM) also with 9:4.
Matches will continue tomorrow at 09:00 with the matches of the first 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.
Filler trounces Ortmann in a clash of the generations
Joshua Filler
Joshua Filler (GER) powered past former World Champion Oliver Ortmann (GER) 9:2 in the second winner’s round of the Dynamic Billard Austrian Open.
The match between the two Germans was really a clash between the generations. On one side Ortmann with all his victories and merits in the past, always to be considered a tough opponent. In the other corner Joshua Filler, young gun on fire who just became third in an international straight pool event in New York, USA. The match was expected a close fight. But it turned out to be everything else but that. To the contrary, Filler started out like a hurricane and played marvelous pool. His break shot was there and he made no mistakes in the early stage of the match. Ortmann’s disadvantage was that his break was not there and Filler punished him for that without mercy. In all fairness, it must also be stated here that Filler did have Lady Luck on his side in the match. However, after seven racks the scoreboard displayed an unbelievable score of 7:0 for Filler! Then, the young German missed an 8-ball. Ortmann came to the table with the 8-ball and the 9-ball on the slate. But he misse d the 9-ball. Obviously, his concentration was broken by Filler’s performance so far. At 0:8, Ortmann took two racks in order to come back a bit. But then Filler closed the book on the match, winning the 11th rack and the match with 9:2 over Ortmann. „I know Oliver is a world class player“, stated Filler, „but today I played better and I also had the necessary luck on my side. That’s 9-ball, I guess“, added Filler.
Other remarkable results from the winner’s qualification round include Daryl Peach (GBR) defeating Nick Van Den Berg (NED) by a whisker with 9:8. „Napoleon“ Marcus Chamat (SWE) got the better of Ralph Eckert (GER) 9:8.
Current World nr.1 ranked player Albin Ouschan (AUT), who lost yesterday his opening match to Nick Malai (GRE), is still alive in the event. Today, he took down Jakub Sawicki (POL) 9:5, then Wojciech Sroczynski (POL) 9:5 and Roman Hybler (CZE) 9:5. He then got a revenge match against Nick Malai. This time, Ouschan remained victorious with a clear result of 9:4 which takes him into the single elimination round of the final 32 players of the Dynamic Billard Austrian Open.
Florian Hammer (GER) who became third at the last event in Banal, Germany, lost his loser’s qualification round match to Christian Sparrenloev-Fischer (SWE) 8:9. Ivo Aarts (NED) ousted David Alcaide (ESP) in the same round with 9:3. Casper Matikainen (FIN) eliminated Germany’s Ralph Eckert with 9:4 from the event.
The action will continue tomorrow at 09:00 with the matches of the last 32 players single elimination.
All matches can be viewed LIVE at www.kozoom.com. Up to 24 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 is hosted by the European Pocket Billiard Federation EPBF and organized by International Billiard Promotion Foundation IBPF.