With the Dynamic Billard Leende Open 2018 underway here in Leende Netherlands, there was relief for some top seeds on day one. Austria’s Mario He the current European number one had a great escape in his first-round match today against the Dutchman, Tim De Ruyter. It was a close encounter with the score line level at 6-6 when Mario found an extra gear after a poor shot from De Ruyter and eventually got over the line with a score 9-7.  Chasing Mario in the rankings is Albania’s Eklent Kaci, who, with a decent result here in Leende will overtake Mario to claim first spot on the European rankings. Eklent has laid down his marker here with a routine victory over a Spanish newcomer Juan Antonio Pina 9-6 and now awaits the young Portuguese Samuel Santos at 3pm local time Friday.

 

The Americans came to town for this stop of the European 9-ball tour and they have a lot to gain here with some decent results. The USA Mosconi cup team is decided from the eight Americans who are here, so the pressure is on for them to perform. Tyler Styer came unstuck when meeting the experienced Karol Skowerski in his first match. Karol, with bags of experience, proved too much to handle for the young American winning in fine style 9-4 and now leaving the American a mountain to climb as he now faces the “Italian Stallion” Fabio Petroni in a must win match on the loser’s side Friday.

 

Oscar Dominguez is another American with an uphill climb, after losing to Austria’s Maximillian Lechner 8-9 and then winning against Saudi’s Amer Hadi Alderbani in a late match Thursday, he will face Germany’s Ruben Frick in a do or die match at 3pm Friday.

 

With USA’s Shane Van Boening, Skyler Woodward, Billy Thorpe, Mitch Ellerman and Shane McMinn all through on the winner’s side, there’s still some jockeying for those team places yet.

 

Corey Deuel will face Poland’s Wiktor Zielinski in a mouth-watering match on Friday at 1:30pm. The up and coming Zielinski will be eager to take down a legend like Corey and has some form of his own as Wiktor already has a Eurotour title under his belt while Corey is visiting the Eurotour for the first time.

 

Spain’s Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz had Germany’s Joshua Filler all over the place in their first-round match. Filler raced off to a 6-2 lead only to watch as the Spaniard pulled back rack after rack and left Filler sitting on the same 6 racks he already had with the Sanchez winning the match 9-6.

 

England’s “Granite” Mark Gray could not stop Mohammed-Hassan Baabad from Saudi Arabia inflicting a shock result. Trailing 3-8 against the Saudi, it looked like the “Granite” was showing his namesake and got the score back to 6-8 before a shaky and nervous Baabad, finally finished the rack needed to seal a great victory for himself and the Saudi team here in Leende. Tomorrow the tournament continues with matches from loser's round 1 tomorrow at 09:00 CET.

 

Friday through Sunday, EPBF will show two feature matches LIVE on the EPBF Facebook page. The complete tournament is shown on kozoom.com for premium pass holders.

 

The event is hosted by the European Governing Body for Pool, the European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) and organised by International Billiard Promotion (IBP).  Play starts Thursday at 09:00 local time, for further information and reference please go to the federation website www.epbf.com under the Eurotour tab. You can also visit us on our Facebook page or check out the EPBF YouTube channel for regular news clips or contact our press office press@epbf.com.

In the 9-ball individuals of the Dynamic Billard European Pool Championships 2018 at the NH Conference Centre Koningshof, Veldhoven, The Netherlands, many close results determined today’s matches.

 

In the round of the last 64 men single elimination, defending Champion Ruslan Chinakhov (RUS) was ousted all of a sudden by unheralded Ferdi Ozdemir (TUR). The Turkish the went on and had a fierce fight with Konrad Juszczyszyn (POL) where he was defeated with 7:9. Other remarkable results from today’s 9-ball matches include Marc Bijsterbosch (NED) smashing Alexander Kazakis (GRE) with 9:2. The same result was good for Joshua Filler (GER) when he wiped the floor with Niels Feijen (NED). While Bijsterbosch had a nice and easy 9:5 victory over Dimitri Jungo (SUI) in the next round, Filler needed to sweat against Marek Hajdovsky (CZE). After 15 racks, Filler was up 8:7 and it was Hajdovsky’s break shot coming up. He successfully executed a good break but had no clear shot on the 1-ball. He needed to come up with a good push-out. He did and Filler gave the shot back to him. Hajdovky played a very good safety and put Filler under pressure with that. Filler managed to hit the 1-ball but left an open table for Hajdovsky. The Czech kept his nerves together and cleared the table, turning the match into a hill-hill affair with Filler having the break shot in the final rack. Filler had a ball down and a tough shot on the 1-ball in front of him. There were no clusters or anything on the table but in order to pocket the 1-ball, Filler needed to bridge over the 4-ball and elevate his bridge hand very much. Filler decided to play a safety in that situation which probably was the better choice. A safety battle occurred with both athletes playing brilliant safety shots. Eventually, Filler came up with a shot that forced Hajdivsky to commit a foul shot. With ball in hand, Filler ran the rack and won the match by a whisker with 9:8 over a worthy opponent.

 

The women’s division was also played down to the final 16 players. Defending Champion Kelly Fisher (GBR) could not be stopped so far. She wasted no time with Helena Benjamin (SWE) and eliminated her with 7:3 from the 9-ball individuals. She will face Melanie Suessenguth (GER) tomorrow had stood tall against her teammate Tina Vogelmann (GER) and won 7:3 today. Ana Gradisnik (SLO) took down Ina Kaplan (GER) and advanced to the round of the last 16 players with a 7:4 victory. Jasmin Ouschan (AUT) waltzed past Yini Gaspar (SUI) and handed her a doughnut with 7:0. Nataliya Seroshtan (RUS) had a tough fight against Micha Beuriot (NED) and just made it over the finish line with 7:6.

 

Henrique Correia (POR), defending Champion in the senior’s division, is still alive in the 9-ball individuals. Though he had to take the detour over the loser’s side, he has ousted Piotr Kleinschmidt (POL) 7:0 and the Dirk Stenten (GER) in the single elimination round. Also Rustem Aygunlu (TUR) was no obstacle for Correia. The Portuguese won the match 8:2 and advanced into the round of the final 16 players.

 

Christoffer Lentz (DEN) and Ivan Galic (CRO) are probably the most promising athletes in the Under 17’s division. They are among the last 16 players of the field. Lentz took down Oskar Jamorski (POL) 7:3 while Galic made it with 7:2 over Sasu Hietamis (FIN). If they both win their next matches, they will have a showdown against one another in the quarter-finals.

 

In the Under 19’s, defending Champion Jan Van Lierop (NED) still stands tall and holds his position against all challengers so far. Today, his victim was German team Champion Alen Salic (GER) who lost with 5:8 to van Lierop. Sanjin Pehlivanovic (BIH) made a clear statement when he overran Ragnar Gronsten (SWE) with 8:1. Wiktor Zielinski (POL) had some more work to do but in the end also joined the athletes in the next round by beating Dmitrii Shkudov (RUS) with 8:6. Jonas Souto (ESP) came out strong in the heartbreaker against Egor Trifonov (RUS) which he managed to decide with 8:7 for himself.

 

The „newest“ division of the EPBF, the Under 23’s, was already played down to the last 12 players today. The biggest upset was the elimination of last year’s runner-up and #1 seeded player Pijus Labutis (LTU). He fell to the sharp blade of Matis Saetre (NOR) with 8:9. Already in the quarter-finals are Samuel Santos (POR), Mark Magi (EST), Spasian Spasov (BUL) and Casper Matikainen (FIN). Their opponents will be determined tomorrow morning in the first round at 09:30 CET.

 

In the girls’ division, the favourites are still in the race for the Gold Medal. Probably the best chances has Valeriia Trushevskaia (RUS). She has already booked her seat in the quarter-final match. Together with Viktoriia Gurova (RUS) she has a pretty good starting position. However, 10-ball Champion Nina Torvund (NOR) and 8-ball Champion Darya Siranchuk (UKR) are also fighting for a spot among the last eight athletes.

 

In the ladies’ division, 8-ball Champion Barbara Bolfelli (ITA) had to forfeit her match for professional reasons. Defending Champion Ine Helvik, who has already taken the crown in 10-ball this week and defended her title there, is in the quarter-final, waiting for her opponent to be decided tomorrow morning.

 

In the wheelchair division, defending Champion Jouni Tahti (FIN) is fighting his way through the loser’s side. He just made it over Emil Malanowski (POL) in the loser’s qualification round with 7:6.

 

The Dynamic Billard European Pool Championships 2018 will commence tomorrow morning at 09:30 CET with the matches from the 9-ball individuals competition. The finals are scheduled for 16:00 CET. From 14:00 CET, table 1 will be broadcasted LIVE through Ziggo Sports Channel, the biggest Dutch sports channel and will show one semi-final and the final match. A discipline for the Live TV will be chosen tomorrow.

 

The Jubilee Championships are played on 60 tables which are all streamed LIVE throughout the whole event. In order to be able to follow all the action LIVE, premium membership can be obtained at www.kozoom.com. Once a premium membership is held, all events for the respective period of time can be viewed LIVE. Additionally, a huge video gallery is contained in the website.

 

The event is hosted by the European Governing Body for Pool, the European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) and organized by International Billiard Promotion (IBP). For further information and reference please go to the federation website www.epconline.eu or visit us on Facebook for regular news clips or contact our press office press@epbf.com.

The 8-ball individuals at the Dynamic Billard European Pool Championships 2018 in NH Conference Centre in Veldhoven, The Netehrlands, have been decided. Germany turned out to be the big winner of the day, taking 3 titles and a total of 10 medals in that one day only. This performance catapults team Germany to the top of the medal table after three of five events.

 

In the men’s division, Bahram Lotfy (DEN) defeated Konrad Juszczyszyn (POL) 8:2 in the final match. Lotfy seemed to be on fire throughout the whole tournament. His victims on his way to the final match include Alex Lely (NED), Mario He (AUT), Alexander Kazakis (GRE) and in the semi-final  Mieszko Fortunski (POL). This impressive list of players got ousted by Lofty who came to Veldhoven pretty unheralded and can be regarded as a real surprise winner. „I have been focussing a lot on my practice over the last year“, stated Lotfy after the final match. „I practice a lot with Niels (Feijen) and I also do mental training as in meditation“, Lotfy added. „I felt really comfortable throughout the whole competition and I’m looking forward to the 9-ball“.

 

Top 4 Men

 

1. Lotfy, Bahram DEN

2. Juszczyszyn, Konrad POL

3. Filler, Joshua GER

    Fortunski, Mieszko POL

 

In the women’s division, Veronika Ivanovskaia (GER) took the title in a final match against Tamara Peeters-Rademakers (NED) with 6:3. Ivanovskaia literally played against the whole arena since the audience was packed with Peeters’ friends, Family and supporters. But also the German contingency managed to make some noise during the final match. The match for Gold was decided by Ivanovskaia playing more solid than Peeters. The German was a bit unlucky on her break shot but she did not commit any mistakes during the racks. Peeters missed too many shots and especially positions which in the end cost her the match. „I had a tough match against Tamara“, said Ivanovskaia after the final, „I could really feel the pressure from the audience.“ „My toughest matches in the whole event probably was against Oliwia (Czuprynska). At hill-hill, she pocketed the 8-ball and scratched. I won that match on pure luck. Maybe that gave me extra strength against Jasmin (Ouschan) in the semi-final“. Tamara Peeters-Rademakers stated: „I committed too many mistakes in the final match. I had such a great support from everyone here but Veronika simply played better than me tonight“, admitted Peeters-Rademakers.

 

Top 4 Women

 

1. Ivanovskaia, Veronika GER

2. Peeters-Rademakers, Tamara NED

3. Schade, Vivien GER

    Ouschan, Jasmin AUT

 

In the senior’s division, Reiner Wirsbitzki (GER) claimed the title against Sandor Tot (HUN) in the final with 7:1. Two times already this week, Tot has been the final destination for Wirsbitzki. In straight pool in the quarter-final and in 10-ball in the round of the last 16 players, Tot eliminated Wirsbitzki. Today in the final match, Wirsbitzki wanted payback time. And he received his revenge on Tot. Wirsbitzki played extremely solid and thrashed Tot 7:1 in a single-sided final match. Wirsbitzki has been a constant gold medallist in previous years in the senior’s division, but his last title in the individuals is as far back as 2015 when he won the title in straight pool in Sankt Johann im Pongau in Austria.

 

Top 4 Seniors

 

1. Wirsbitzki, Reiner GER

2. Tot, Sandor HUN

3. Cerimagic, Dino BIH

    Pereira, Manuel POR

 

In the „oldest“ division of the youth, the Under 23’s, Casper Matikainen (FIN) snatched the title with an 8:2 victory over Johannes Schmitt (GER). Matikainen pretty much dominated the Under 23 division since he eliminated most of the other favourite players one after the other. Kevin Schiller (GER), Vitaliy Patsura (UKR) and Samuel Santos (POR) are the guns Matikainen put to shame during the 8-ball individuals.

 

Top 4 U23

 

1. Matikainen, Casper FIN

2. Schmitt, Johannes GER

3. Labutis, Pijus LTU

    Santos, Samuel POR

 

In the Under 19’s, Christian Froehlich (GER) took his first medal on the European level ever, winning the division in the final match with 7:4 over teammate Alen Salic (GER). The two most contended medals in that division both went to the German team today.

 

Top 4 U19

 

1. Froehlich, Christian GER

2. Salic, Alen GER

3. Zielinski, Wiktor POL

    Souto, Jonas ESP

 

In the Under 17’s, Ivan Galic (CRO) took the title against Ole-Kristian Rudshavn (NOR) with 6:4. Ivan Galic already took a medal this week in 10-ball, becoming the runner-up.

 

Top 4 U17

 

1. Galic, Ivan CRO

2. Rudshavn, Ole-Kristian NOR

3. Gangfløt, Emil-Andre NOR

    Neuhausen, Moritz GER

 

In the girls’ division, Darya Siranchuk (UKR) won her first title against Palina Chernik (BLR) with 5:1. Siranchuk has already won three medals in the girls’ last year but no title yet. One silver medal and two bronze medals were her achievements in Leende in 2017. Siranchuk had to take the detour over the loser’s side this year in 8-ball since she lost in the winner’s qualification round 4:5 to Aleksandra Guleikova (RUS). Then, she managed to win against Cindy Keller (SUI) 5:0 and Alina Brummer (GER) 5:2 before she encountered Valeriia Trushevskaia. That match turned into a fierce battle. When the smoke settled, Siranchuk was the 5:4 winner in the semi-final. The final match was a more or less clear affair for Siranchuk.

 

Top 4 Girls

 

1. Siranchuk Darya UKR

2. Chernik, Palina BLR

3. Trushevskaia, Valerija RUS

    Neuhausen, Maximiliana GER

 

In the ladies’ division, Barbara Bolfelli (ITA) overpowered Anja Hehre (GER) with 5:3 in the final match, winning her 4th European Champion title in the ladies’ division.

 

Top 4 Ladies

 

1. Bolfelli, Barbara ITA

2. Hehre, Anja GER

3. Andersson, Ulrika SWE

    Haeflinger, Ortenzia SUI

 

In the wheelchair division, Jouni Tahti (FIN) once more was the guy to beat. He eliminated Henrik Lasrsson (SWE) with 5:2 in the final match. This is the 35th medal for Tahti on European level and his 23rd title. What a domination from Tahti. Unfortunately, the day also saw some donwside. The wheelchair division produced one of the biggest upsets of the tournament so far. The athlete Kurt Deklerck (BEL) was given the black card and therefore disqualified from the whole European Championships and stripped from all his results. Deklerck was judged guilty for cheating in his matches in adding a greasy substance onto the cue ball during his match, manipulating the angles of the game. For that reason, there is only one Bronze Medal awarded in the wheelchair division today.

 

Top 3 Wheelchair

 

1. Tahti, Jouni FIN

2. Larsson, Henrik SWE

3. Brajkovic, Matej SLO

 

Medal table after 3 of 5 events

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Ralf Souquet (GER), also known as „The Kaiser“, is still alive and kicking in the single elimination stage of the Dynamic Billard European Pool Championships in NH Conference Centre in Veldhoven, The Netherlands. With two victories in the single elimination stage of the 8-ball individuals, he is right on track in his quest for another title.

 

Souquet’s working day started with the match against Nick Malai (GRE). The Greek player is known to be really good at times but he is not as consistent as Souquet is. Today, Souquet did not face too much of an obstacle in the Greek. he clearly won this match 8:3. He then advanced to the next round to face Konstantin Stepanov (RUS). That match was definitely much more work than the previous one. After 8 racks, Souquet found himself trailing 3:5 to the Russian. He needed to find some momentum in the match. And he did! Following Souquet for many years, it is well-known that he never gives up before the match is not over. Today, he managed to tie the match at 6:6. Then, „The Kaiser“ went on the hill first and got to 7:6. Stepanov had the break shot in rack 14 and achieved a good result. He had some balls down and a doable in front of him. He ran the rack and made the match a hill-hill affair at 7:7. Souquet’s break shot was up next. He also had a good break with balls down and a nice layout in front of him. However, the pressure was unbelievably high at that time. But Souquet is a second to none when it comes to experience and performing well under fire. He cleared the table in his typical „surgeon“ way with perfect positioning and won the match with 8:7 over a disappointed Stepanov who has to settle for 17th place now. Souquet will be up against Poland’s Mieszko Fortunski in the next round.

 

Other remarkable results include Germany’s wonderkid Joshua Filler eliminating Sergey Lutsker (RUS) 8:5 and Nikos Ekonomopoulos (GRE) 8:6 back to back. He will go up against Ivar Saris (NED) in the round of the last 16 players which is scheduled for 11:30 CET tomorrow morning. The Dutch men did not have their best day today. In the round of the last 64 players, most of their top athletes lost. Niels Feijen (NED) fell 4:8 to Fedor Gorst (RUS). Match Bijsterbosch (NED) had a tough struggle against Alex Montpellier (FRA) and succumbed 7:8 in the end. The only two Dutch players advancing into the round of the last 32 athletes were Ivar Saris and Alex Lely. While Saris is still in for the battle for the title, having defeated defending Champion Jani Uski (FIN) 8:6, Lely got eliminated by Bahram Lotfy (DEN) with 7:8.

 

The women only had one round of play today in the 8-ball individuals. The toughest match was definitely the encounter between Sara Rocha (POR) and Yana Shut (BLR). They also went all the way to 5:5 when Rocha had the better outcome in rack 13, winning by a whisker with 6:5.

 

The senior’s division saw a huge surprise today when Joakim Gunnarsson (SWE) ended the run of defending Champion Enrique Correia (POR) with 7:4. The other favourites Sandor Tot (HUN) and Reiner Wirsbitzki (GER) are also still in the race for the title.

 

In the girls’ division, the four athletes who have qualified for the quarter-finals already are Aleksandra Guleikova (RUS), Palina Chernik (BLR), Alina Brummer (GER) and Valeriia Trushevskaia (RUS). They are awaiting their opponents from the loser’s qualification round which is played tomorrow at 11:30 CET.

 

The four athletes who are in the quarter-finals of the Under 23’s are Johannes Schmitt (GER), Pijus Labutis (LIT), Aleksa Pecelj (SRB) and Casper Matikainen (FIN). They will get the winner’s from the loser’s qualification round which is filled with good names like Mark Magi (EST), Kevin Schiller (GER), Samuel Santos (POR) and Vitaliy Patsura (UKR), just to name a few. The division is open for surprises.

 

In the wheelchair division, Henrik Larsson (SWE) delivered the upset of the day in defeating defending Champion and long time rival Jouni Tahti (FIN) with 5:4.

 

The Dynamic Billard European Pool Championships 2018 will commence tomorrow morning at 09:00 CET with matches from the team competition.

 

The Jubilee Championships are played on 60 tables which are all streamed LIVE throughout the whole event. In order to be able to follow all the action LIVE, premium membership can be obtained at www.kozoom.com. Once a premium membership is held, all events for the respective period of time can be viewed LIVE. Additionally, a huge video gallery is contained in the website.

 

The event is hosted by the European Governing Body for Pool, the European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) and organized by International Billiard Promotion (IBP). For further information and reference please go to the federation website www.epconline.eu or visit us on Facebook for regular news clips or contact our press office press@epbf.com.