ROUND 1 Russia 7-4 Switzerland Greece 7-2 Serbia Estonia 7-5 Belgium
Seeded teams Russia, Greece and Estonia all advanced to the second round of the World Cup of Pool on Monday evening, the latter fighting back from 5-1 down to defeat Belgium 7-5 at Stadium MK, Milton Keynes.
Earlier in the session Russia had beaten Switzerland 7-4 to set up a second-round match against Japan, while Greece defeated Serbia 7-2.
Russia, featuring World Champion Fedor Gorst and new playing partner Sergey Lutsker, raced to a 5-0 lead with a combination of confident play and some poor Swiss errors. Russia, despite their strength in the sport, have suffered first round defeats in the last two World Cups. Gorst had yet to advance beyond round one in this event and was made to sweat by Switzerland (Ronald Regli and Dimitri Djungo), who won four consecutive racks to cut the deficit to 5-4.
However, Russia got another chance in the tenth and moved to the hill, before winning the next rack to book their place in round two, where Japan, who defeated Croatia earlier in the day, await.
In the evening’s second match Serbia (Aleksa Pecelj and Andreja Klasović) made a promising start against the Greek pair of Alexander Kazakis and Nick Malai, a pairing who reached the semi-finals last time out. However, the wheels soon came off for the Serbian pair and Greece pulled well clear, winning 7-2. They’ll meet the winners of Canada’s clash with South Africa in round two on Wednesday evening.
Estonia (Denis Grabe and Mark Magi) became the sixth team to advance on the first day of play, but only after surviving an almighty scare against Belgium (Serge Das and Kavin Lannoye).
Das and Lannoye fired themselves to a 5-1 lead, but after a fluid start lost their way with the finish line in sight. A string of errors allowed Estonia to fight back, though they themselves were far from faultless. At 5-4 up, Belgium looked set to reach the hill before a time foul was called against Das, giving Estonia ball in hand to level the match.
A dry break brought Belgium back to the table, but a Lannoye scratch on the 1 gave initiate back to Estonia, who from 5-1 down were now first to the hill and complete their turnaround by running the next to win 7-5. They’ll face either Great Britain or Belarus in the second round on Wednesday.
Round one continues on Monday with sessions at 12 noon and 5:30pm UK time. Matches include Finland vs. Iceland in the afternoon and Spain vs. Italy in the evening.
The World Cup of Pool is broadcast live globally including on Sky Sports, DAZN and Matchroom.Live. Full broadcast details can be found at matchroompool.com.
Eklent Kaci’s Albanian team are among a number of nations now confirmed for the World Cup of Pool, which will take place this May 9-14 at Stadium MK, Milton Keynes, live on Sky Sports.
Mosconi Cup winner Kaci will again be joined by Besar Spahiu after the pair defeated Russia at the 2019 World Cup before falling agonisingly short against Philippines, suffering a 7-5 defeat.
A host of European teams are now confirmed, as well as Kuwait (Omar Al-Shaheen and Bader Abdullah Alawadhi), and Australia, who will again be represented by Justin Sajich, this time partnered by Ivan Li.
Serge Das will return for Belgium alongside Kevin Lannoye, while Bosnia & Herzegovina will make their World Cup of Pool debut with Sanjin Pehlivanovic and Ajdin Piknjac. Philipp Stojanovic and Roberto Bartol will represent Croatia, while the Czech Republic pairing will be Roman Hybler and Michal Gavenciak.
Young Danish star Mickey Krause will make his debut in the Matchroom arena with Bahram Lotfy as the 20-year-old’s partner.
Estonia’s Denis Grabe and Mark Magi, who famously fell out after losing a hill-hill second round match at the last World Cup of Pool, will be hoping nothing comes between them this time around. Oliver Szolnoki and Vilmos Foldes are teaming up for Hungary and there’s a World Cup debut for Lithuania, represented by Pijus Labutis and Kęstutis Žadeikis.
The World Cup of Pool features 32 two-player teams and is played to a straight-knockout format, with a total prize fund of $250,000.
Team Austria (Albin Ouschan and Mario He) will defend their title in Milton Keynes, but competition will be tough with some of the biggest names in pool already confirmed. They include, three-times winners Philippines (Jeff De Luna and Roberto Gomez), USA (Skyler Woodward and Billy Thorpe), and Great Britain A (Jayson Shaw and Chris Melling).
The final teams will be announced shortly and the draw for the World Cup of Pool will be made soon after all teams have been confirmed. The World Cup of Pool will be broadcast live on Sky Sports, DAZN and Matchroom.Live, with further international broadcasters to be confirmed.
Radoslaw Babica from Poland ousted "The Tornado" Tony Drago (MLT) from the Dynamic Billard Treviso Open Euro-Tour event with a narrow 9:8 victory.
One great and thrilling match happened today in the loser’s qualification round when Radoslaw Babica (POL) faced Tony Drago (MLT). The match went along very leveled and after 10 racks, the scoreboard displayed a tie at 5:5. Then, Babica went on the hill first and got an 8:6 advantage over Drago. But the "Tornado" struck back, winning two straight racks in order to make the match 8:8. Then, Drago was at the table with all balls in the open for him. However, he missed an easy 5-ball and allowed Babica back into the table. The Polish could not run-out but he turned the final rack into a safety exchange. Drago tried a risky bank shot when he had the option of either playing a safety or going for a bank. He missed it and allowed Babica to run the rack and win the match with 9:8.
Another interesting match was the clash between Michal Turkowski (POL) and Marcus Chamat (SWE). After five racks, Turkowski was leading 4:1 over Chamat. But the Swede did not even think about giving up. He fought back and got into the match, turning the scoreboard to 8:7 after 15 racks. Then Turkowski played up to his best and made the match another hill-hill thriller. In the final and decisive 17th rack, a safety battle occurred. Both players tried not to leave a shot for the opponent. Then Chamat left a shot for Turkowski which the Polish had to jump. He flunked the ball in over three rails but it could not be considered to be a lucky shot since he hooked himself again on the next ball. While he attempted to hit that object ball, Turkowski committed a foul shot and gave ball in hand to Chamat who capitalized from it and ran the rack to win the match by a hair’s breadth with 9:8. In the next round, the loser’s qualification round, Chamat fell to Ivica Putnik (CRO) with 5:9.
The results of the last 32 players single elimination are as follows:
That provides us with the following line-up for the round of the last 16 players:
Niels Feijen v Oliver Ortmann
Francisco Diaz-Pizarro v John Tanttu
Alexander Kazakis v Radoslaw Babica
Tomasz Kaplan v Albin Ouschan
Nick van den Berg v Ivica Putnik
Mats Schjetne v Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz
Can Salim-Giasar v Ralf Souquet
Denis Grabe v Mark Gray
Action continues tomorrow morning at 10:00 local time with matches of the round of the last 16 players. At 09:00, the women’s tournament will start with matches of the first round.
The tournament is played on 16 tables of which 12 are 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 , or contact our press office.
TWO MORE seeded teams crashed out of the 2015 Dafabet World Cup of Pool as the penultimate session of round one matches continued at the York Hall. The #11 seeds Spain were well beaten by unfancied Czech Republic while the seventh seeded Greece were overturned by Singapore. The other match saw former champions Finland enjoy a tidy win over Belgium.
Taking place at the York Hall in London, the Dafabet World Cup of Pool features 32 two-man teams from around the globe competing for a $250,000 prize fund. Televised live in over 40 countries around the world, the event is now entering its tenth year.
In a low quality match with plenty of errors, the Czech Republic had too much to the Spanish pair of the two Franciscos (Diaz-Pizarro & Sanchez Ruiz). In particular Sanchez Ruiz had a bit of a nightmare as he had a couple of glaring misses that helped the Czechs on their way.
Roman Hybler and Michal Gavenciak, who had reach the quarter-finals of the inaugural World Cup of Pool back in 2006, pulled away from 3-3 after being guilty of early errors themselves.
The turning point was the seventh rack as Gavenciak refused an open 6 ball in favour of laying a telling snooker. The Spanish failed to escape and with ball in hand the score became 4-3. From a powerful Gavenciak break in the eighth the Czechs ran out, and a 2/9 combo in the next made it 6-3. Spain could not recover as the Czechs booked a second round match against Qatar.
Commented Hybler, “We are really pleased to be into the second round. At the start of the match there was a lot of pressure for both teams and you could feel it. When we went 4-3 up I felt more confident and we made some good shots.
“We watched Qatar against USA last night. America was a favourite and they are out but the Qatari guys are very good. We will enjoy that match and hopefully go through to the quarter-final.”
Gavenciak added, “I wasn’t feeling my game at the start because I could feel the pressure but I relaxed as the game went on and now the first game has been won I know I will be more confident in the second match.
“The practice table doesn’t have the same pressure as the TV table and with the lighting it plays a little bit differently from the practice room.”
Finland, who has a very strong track record in the World Cup, was the better team as they disposed of Belgium to make the second round. The Finns have been champions, runners up and twice semi-finalist in the nine year history of the event and will be looking for a deep finish this year.
The same pair who won in 2012 – Mika Immonen and Petri Makkonen – look one of the more solid pairings in the event as they took their chances. The Belgian duo of Serge Das and Olivier Mortier had far too many errors to genuinely contend in the match as Finland ran out 7-4 winners.
“It’s great to be over the first hurdle because there have been some shocks in the first round and we avoided that and we are glad to be alive in the tournament,” said Immonen.
“Playing at York Hall is always very special. There is a great atmosphere here and it is a familiar venue. I was born in London so it is really special to play here.”
Makkonen, whose win at the German Open in the summer pushed him up to No.4 on the European rankings, said “We have confidence in both of our games and it is easy to play alongside Mika. We have to work on our breaks a bit more. The table is sliding so we have to adjust our shots but overall we played well today.”
In the final match another seeded pairing bit the dust as Greece got overturned by Singapore in a close and entertaining match. The star of the show was teenage sensation Aloysius Yapp of Singapore, who at 19 seems to have an old head on young shoulders.
With his partner, the more seasoned Chang Keng Kwang, played his part as they capitalised on some glaring Greek mistakes. Ekonomopoulus and Kazakis never looked entirely comfortable but at 5-5 the match was anyone’s but a failed attempt at a tricky combo on the 9 allowed the Singaporeans to take the rack and they ran out the last for the win.
Commented Yapp, “We played well and I am overwhelmed to beat Greece. They are a great team and Nikos has played in the Mosconi Cup, Kazakis went far in the World 9-ball last week. They are very good players so it is a great feeling for us to win.
“We are ready for Finland. We are playing very well and with this format, anyone can win.”
Results
England A (1) 7-5 Australia
Korea (16) 7-6 Malaysia
Indonesia 7-3 Germany
Romania 7-4 China
Austria (5) 7-5 Peru
France 7-6 Canada (12)
Poland (13) 7-3 New Zealand
Chinese Taipei (4) 7-5 Estonia
Holland (3) 7-3 India
Japan (14) 7-3 Italy
Qatar 7-5 USA (6)
Philippines (2) 7-4 Russia
The following broadcasters are screening live coverage of the Dafabet World Cup of Pool:
Sky Sports – GB and Ireland; Sky – New Zealand; CCTV – China; Nova TV – Czech Republic & Slovakia; OSN – Middle East & North Africa; ESPN 3 – USA; ESPN Latin America –Central & South America; Viasat – Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Bulgaria & the Baltic states.
For fans outside those territories, Perform Group will be streaming the event via their www.livesport.tv service. In addition the Dafabet World Cup of Pool is syndicated around the world as 31 x 1 hour programmes by Matchroom Television.
Featuring 32 two-man teams from around the world, the Dafabet World Cup of pool is celebrating its tenth year as defending champion England attempt to become the first team ever to successfully defend the title. The event runs from 22nd to 27th September.
Tickets are now on sale at www.SEETickets.com and are priced at 10.00 per evening session (Tuesday to Friday), 12.50 per evening session on the Saturday and Sunday. Weekend afternoon sessions are 7.50 while Tuesday to Friday afternoons are free!
A season ticket covering all sessions is priced at 65.00.
The World Cup of Pool will carry a $250,000 prize fund including $60,000 for the champions. The event will be produced by Matchroom Sport Television and televised live on Sky Sports and then syndicated internationally as 31 x 1 hour programmes.
Diamond Billiards are the Official Table of the 2015 World Cup of Pool; the Official Cloth is supplied by Iwan Simonis and the Official Balls are Super Aramith. The Official Cue, Chalk and Rest are supplied by Predator.
With the annual World Cup of Pool coming back to London this September, Matchroom Sport can announce the 32 teams and players set to contest the annual $250,000 pairs tournament. Taking place at pool’s fiercest venue, the York Hall in Bethnal Green, the World Cup runs from Tuesday 22nd to 27th September.
Defending champions are England A with Karl Boyes and Darren Appleton looking to become the first pair to successfully defend their crown. Competition will be tough though, with a host of previous winners and finalists taking part.
Germany will be represented by 2011 champions Thorsten Hohmann and Ralf Souquet and 2012 winners Mika Immonen and Petri Makkonen (Finland) will be once again taking part. America’s Shane Van Boening, a winner with Rodney Morris in 2008, is paired with Mike Dechaine this time, while Li Hewen, a two-time winner in 2007 and 2010 will be partnered by Liu Haitao as they make a run for title number three for China.
Holland, desperately unlucky to be runners up in 2013 and 2014, will be looking to go one better as Niels Feijen and Nick Van Den Berg team up once again. Daryl Peach and Mark Gray, who came so close for England in 2008, will also be trying to repeat those performances.
Other highly fancied teams include the Philippines which pairs former World No.1 Carlo Biado with under-rated Warren Kiamco and Taiwan – World 10 Ball champion Ko Pin Yi and Chang Yu Lung. Team Austria will also fancy their chances as World No.1 Albin Ouschan and Mario He pair up one again.
Commencing on Tuesday 22nd and culminating in the final on the evening of Sunday 27th, the event will be played to a single elimination format over six days with two sessions a day.
There are 31 matches in total.
Tickets are now on sale at www.SEETickets.com and are priced at £10.00 per evening session (Tuesday to Friday), £12.50 per evening session on the Saturday and Sunday. Weekend afternoon sessions are £7.50 while Tuesday to Friday afternoons are free!
A season ticket covering all sessions is priced at £65.00.
The World Cup of Pool will carry a $250,000 prize fund including $60,000 for the champions. The event will be produced by Matchroom Sport Television and televised live on Sky Sports and then syndicated internationally as 31 x 1 hour programmes.
THERE were comfortable wins for Germany, Canada and Switzerland at the 2014 Betway World Cup of Pool as the opening session of day three unwound at the Mountbatten Centre, Portsmouth. There is just one more round one game remaining as India and England B slug it out in the opening game of Thursday evening.
In the opening game, 2011 champions Germany – Thorsten Hohmann and Ralf Souquet – had too much for Malaysia, represented by Alan Tan and Ibrahim Amir, as they coasted to a 7-1 victory.
“We’re obviously very happy with the result and the performance,” said a delighted Hohmann.
“I missed a bank shot in the first rack but after that we didn’t make too many mistakes. We got a little fortunate getting balls after the break, that is very important and we were able to string a few racks together so that helped our confidence.
“We are still trying to figure out the speed of the table but I think this match will set us up positively for the rest of the tournament,” he added.
His partner Souquet said, “The break is huge. We were a little fortunate after the breaks to get a shot on the lowest ball, and twice it was tight but we were able to get out and string three or four racks together and that was key.”
The Germans will be playing Canada in the second round after Alex Pagulayan and John Morra looked in good shape as they took care of late subs Malta by 7-1. Tony Drago and Alex Borg have had little luck over the years in the Betway World Cup and that continued as they crashed out of the event. The Maltese pair had come in for Vietnam who had travel difficulties and could not make it to Portsmouth.
Commented John Morra: “We haven’t had a lot of chance to play together in the build up to this tournament but we have played together in this tournament before so we know where we are at.
“Against Germany we will have to stick to our game plan. We both played them both in individual tournaments and we all have wins over each other. If we repeat what we did today then we should be ok.”
In the final match of the session, Switzerland completed a trio of one-sided wins as they overcame another substitute team, Belgium, who were replacing Thailand. The duo of Ronni Regli and Dimitri Jungo have recorded some decent wins in previous editions of the event, and they looked solid enough today, although Serge Das and Olivier Mortier gifted some chances. They can now look forward to a round two match against Holland tomorrow afternoon.
“We are looking forward to playing Holland, the reason we are in the tournament is to play against the best players,” said Regli.
Jungo added, “Holland are one of the favourites but in the last two years we have won against some of the best teams in this tournament.”
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
The Dynamic Billard Slovenian Open had a novelty today: For the first time, brother and sister met in the second winner’s round. We are talking about Jasmin and Albin Ouschan from Austria.
They both had a walk-over in the first round. Then, in the first winner’s round, Jasmin defeated Andrey Seroshtan (RUS) 9:5 while Albin overcame Michael Lichodziejewski (POL) 9:7. This brought the two together in winner’s round two. They started out quite equally. Then, Jasmin committed two mistakes which was enough for her brother to snatch the needed points off her, winning the match with 9:4. „When we saw we had to play each other, we had to laugh“, stated Albin after the match. „Jasmin and I have played each other in competition six or seven years ago for the last time“. When asked whether they would now have a tense time, Albin added: „No, I think all is good. After the match we talked about what we are going to eat for dinner tonight“. Albin Ouschan will continue in the winner’s qualification round tomorrow while Jasmin needs to seek her luck in the loser’s round.
Other remarkable results include Ralf Souquet (GER) losing to Karl Boyes (GBR) with 3:9 in the first winner’s round. This match was exactly the final match of this year’s Dynamic Billard North Cyprus Open in April. Then, Souquet had the better end and won the tournament with a victory over Boyes. Today, the Brit prove to be the stronger player and advanced to the next winner’s round where he made short work of Adam Mscisz (POL) with 9:1.
Reigning World 9-Ball Champion Niels „The Terminator“ Feijen (NED) lost three racks today in total! He defeated Antonio Neves (POR) with 9:2, then Anthony Brabin (CYP) with 9:1. Strong performance as usual from the Dutch superstar.
His fellow countryman Nick Van Den Berg (NED) was not so lucky today. He lost his first match to Carlos Cabello Ariza (ESP) 8:9 and now has to make his way all through the loser’s side. This happened to van den Berg before, and he actually won the tournament so maybe this first round defeat was kind of a wake-up-call for the Dutch.
It can be viewed here that many players from the younger generation give the experienced players a hard time. Joshua Filler (GER) defeated Serge Das (BEL) with 9:6. Daniel Tangudd (SWE) remained victorious over former World Champion Oliver Ortmann (GER) by a hair’s breadth with 9:8.
Another player who should be taken a close look at is Marcus Chamat (SWE). After a break of one year for personal reasons, he shows his face back on the tour and seems to be as dangerous as always. He defeated Ivo Aarts (NED) with 9:4 and then Harald Stolka (GER) also with 9:4.
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.
Last night, we concluded the most spectacular Longoni Benelux Open to date. With 240 entries, this sixth edition of the event was the biggest in the series. An incredible field of superb pros, counting no less than seven world champions, in a fierce battle for the championship title, the coveted Longoni cup, the fame and the substantial prize fund.
Yesterday, the elite 'Final 32' lined up some amazing matches. In the early stages of the day, there were already quite some matches worthy of a final, to name but a few:
Ralf Souquet (D) vs Oliver Oliver "the Machine" Ortmann (Official) (D) [3rd round]
By reaching the Final 32, a fantastic achievement in itself, Longoni junior pro Kamila Khodjaeva earned the status of Best Lady, including a prize money bonus.
In the end, eight die hards reached the Quarter Finals. Reigning world 9ball champion Niels Feijen escaped from elimination with hill/hill matches against fellow countryman Nick van den Berg and former world 8ball champion Karl Boyes. Tony Drago, dealt with his opponents in 'Tornado' mode, which put him in the quarters so fast that that he had to wait a long time for all the other matches to catch up. The double knock out stage resulted in the following Quarter Finals:
Former Longoni Benelux Open Champions reached the first Semi Final. While the other saw two German '1. Bundesliga' teammates facing each other in battle:
Andreas Roschkowsky (D) 5-8 Daryl Peach (ENG)
Lars Kuckherm (D) 3-8 Niels Feijen (NL)
In the end, the conclusion of the event was a revanche match of the 2012 Final. This time, the pool gods favoured Niels Feijen, who had his more than eager eyes on nothing else but the prize. Eventually, 'The Terminator' had to win the Longoni Benelux Open. Everybody expected him to. After all, he is the event's MVP.
Daryl Peach (ENG) 3-8 Niels Feijen (NL)
((( Niels Feijen is the 2014 Longoni Benelux Open Champion )))
In the meantime, the 2014 Longoni Benelux Open Ladies Side Event's Final was still in progress. It became a double hill thriller. Martine Christiansencould have finished it. Instead, she left the 9ball rattling in the jaws of the corner pocket. The cool and collected Kamila Khodjaeva grabbed the opportunity with both hands and pocketed the last two balls for the win. Double success for the fresh new Longoni team member.
There was no better scenario than this for Longoni cues. A double win, the most successful and fulfilling event in the series and smiling faces, throughout the long weekend.
And last, but not least, I want to thank all the players and spectators for attending in great numbers, Thurston Rotterdam and its great staff for hosting the event, Kem Sen and his www.ebillard.fr team for putting together a fantastic live stream, the tournament staff – Alain Desmet, Tom Penrose,Stefan Osnabrug and guest master photographer JP Parmentier – and the people who helped – Crelis Hogchem and Johan Bakermans – all our partners in this venture: Hotel One, King Kong Hostel, Sumo, KNBB, Kamui,Serge Das Billiards, Loontjens Biljarts, Iwan Simonis, Saluc for their Aramith pool balls and Rotterdam Topsport.
THE EUROPEAN QUALIFYING event for the 2014 World Cup of Pool gets underway tomorrow (Tuesday) in Portoroz, Slovenia with a first round match-up against China awaiting the victors. There are eight two-man teams taking part with the winning team gaining a sport at the Mountbatten Centre, Portsmouth where the World Cup takes place from 23rd to 28th September.
With a $250,000 prize fund on offer, there will be everything to play for and the European qualifiers have got a superb record of upsetting the odds in recent years. Last year, Hungary KO’d China in the first round and then Russia to reach the quarter finals and in 2011 both Switzerland and Estonia turned the form book on its head when they beat China and England respectively in the first round in Manila.
All qualifying matches will be streamed live by Kozoom via their streaming platform. Please go to www.eurotouronline.eu or www.eurotouronline.com and click on the logo ‘Qualifier World Cup of Pool’.
Commented a Matchroom Sport spokesman, “There is plenty of strength in depth in European pool and the performances of the qualifiers down the years is testament to that. “The winners will go into the main event as unknowns and will have nothing to lose and every chance of upsetting the odds!”
The World Cup of Pool will carry a $250,000 prize fund including $60,000 for the champions. The event will be produced by Matchroom Sport Television and televised live on Sky Sports and other stations around the world and then syndicated internationally as 31 x 1 hour programmes.
All tickets are priced at £5 (afternoons) and £10 evenings and are available from the venue or www.seetickets.com
Diamond Billiards are the Official Table of the 2014 World Cup of Pool; the Official Cloth is supplied by Iwan Simonis and the Official Balls are Super Aramith. Predator is the Official Cue of the event.
Niels Feijen (NED) will want to shine at the Longoni Open, one of his main sponsors
This week-end in Rotterdam (NED) the Thurston Pool Café is host to the Benelux Longoni Open 2014.
After the qualification rounds played in 8 groups with a rebuy system, 28 players have joined the 4 invited stars in the 6th edition of the Benelux Longoni Open. Ralf Souquet (GER), Serge Das (BEL), defending champion Nick Van Den Berg (NED) and reigning World 9-Ball Champion and World Pool Master Niels Feijen (NED) are already in the main tournament.
A preliminary round of qualifications played on the 27th of july, in which Ivo Aarts, Kamila Khodaeva, Visal Peou and Thomas Vanbroekhoven earned their spots in the main tournament to be played on sunday the 17th of august.
As the event has grown over the years, many big names of the european pool scene showed up in Rotterdam since friday the 15th of august. Frenchmen Alex Montpellier and Stephan Cohen were the first two players to qualify, and were soon joined by Elliott Sanderson and Huidji See in Group B. In the next groups, more and more players decided to use the rebuy option and therefore a record 240 entries were registered by the event promoter, Daswan promotion.
Amongst the many names who came out of the group stages to earn a spot in the final tournament and a possibility to claim the trophy are World Champions Karl Boyes (GBR), Daryl Peach (GBR) and Oliver Ortmann (GER). Tony Drago (MLT), Kevin Becker (GER), Andreas Roschkowsky (GER), Karlo Dalmatin (CRO), Marc Bijsterbosch (NED), are other top european players who made their way to the sunday event.
