Archive Page

Several Favourites Struggle in Early Rounds in Treviso

Alexander Kazakis

Alexander Kazakis (GRE) has had a good day „at the office“ today. After having won the 10-ball Kremlin Cup earlier this month, Kazakis came here to Treviso with a lot of wind underneath his wings to play the Dynamic Billard Treviso Open, the final event of the Euro-Tour in 2016. He seems to be on a streak. In his first winner’s round match, Kazakis wasted no time with Guilherme Sousa (POR) and defeated him 9:4. In the next round, the opponent was punished even harder. Ryan Pisany (MLT) fell to the sharp blade of Kazakis and received the maximum penalty. 9:0 was the final result that put Kazakis in the winner’s qualification round where he will be up against Arjan Matrizi (ALB).

 

Former World 9-ball Champion Daryl Peach (GBR) did not catch that good of a day as Kazakis. He won his first match 9:4 over Adam Mscisz (POL) but then met Sascha Trautmann (GER). The German prove to be too strong for Peach today and showed no mercy for him. 9:3 was the final result that put Peach on the loser’s side of the draw.

 

Joining the list of the fallen heroes from today is Albin Ouschan (AUT), current 9-ball World Champion. He started with an easy prey in winner’s round one with a comfortable 9:4 victory over Mariusz Skoneczny (POL). In the next round, Ouschan stood against Andrey Seroshtan (RUS). That match went completely against the World Champion. Seroshtan dominated the table and in the end handed Ouschan a tough and painful 9:4 debacle. Seroshtan, who earlier today overpowered Andreas Madsen (DEN) 9:5 now will go against Jose Alberto Delgado (ESP) in the winner’s qualification round.

 

Another interesting encounter took place in winner’s round one between Konstantin Stepanov (RUS) and newbie Aleksa Pecelj (SRB). The 16-year-old kid from Serbia came here to Treviso for his first Euro-Tour experience and he came up with some impressive performances. In round one, he defeated Jorge Garcia-Fonseca (ESP) with 9:0. Then he met Stepanov who is constantly ranked in the top 32 in Europe since years. However, Pecelj did not show too much respect and tried to live for the moment. He used his chances whenever he got them and Stepanov committed some unnecessary mistakes. This combination lead to a score of 8:8 with Pecelj having the final break shot. He could not make a ball off the break but left no shot for Stepanov. The cue ball was hiding partly behind the 8-ball and he could not see the whole of the 1-ball. He played a push-out and left a tough position for Pecelj. The young Serbian decided to go for a combination shot that was very hard to make. Playing that shot in that situation would have probably not been the choice of many players. But Pecelj went for it and made it. He then used his chance and ran the rack to win with 9:8 over a disappointed Stepanov. In his next match in winner’s round two, Pecelj lost to Olivier Mortier (BEL) 7:9.

 

This year’s Mosconi Cup Captain for Team EUROPE, Marcus Chamat (SWE). received a painful whipping today from Hubert Lopotko (POL). In winner’s round one, Lopotko destroyed Chamat on table 1 and handed him a clear 9:5 defeat. Thereafter, Chamat went to the loser’s side and ousted Tom Bjerke (NOR) 9:6. Having received a walk-over in the next round, Chamat will be up next against Thomas Poeschl (GER) on Friday morning at 10:30 local time. On the other hand, Lopotko has made his way through to the winner’s qualification round by taking down Kristjan Kuusik (EST) 9:5 after the destruction of Chamat. At 13:30tomorrow, he will face Stephan Cohen (FRA) for a spot in the single elimination of the event.

 

The Euro-Tour is played on 20 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.

Edgy start of Dynamic Billard Dutch Open

The Dynamic Billard Dutch Open started this morning according to plan at 09:00 CET with the first round matches in the Golden Tulip Hotel in Leende, The Netherlands. Actually, more or less according to plan. Sometime, things are a bit rough around the edges at the beginning. That is true for players as well as for organizers.

 

Two players from France have missed the fact that this event lasts one day longer which means that play started Wednesday instead of Thursday. They arrived in the afternoon in a good mood just to get the information that their first round matches have been forfeited due to no-shows… Not the best start into a Euro-Tour event.

 

Also the live stream has to cope with some problems due to very low bandwidth on site. Broadcasting is currently pretty difficult. The organizers do their best in order to improve the situation but sometimes things just don’t work the way one wants them to.

 

The same thought was probably valid for Mark Gray (GBR) today.

 

Being constantly among the top ten Euro-Tour players for some years now, Gray had to play his fellow countryman Karl Boyes (GBR) in the first winner’s round already. This happened because Boyes has not played the Euro-Tour regularly and is not seeded. From Gray’s point of view a pretty unlucky draw since Boyes still has the wind underneath his wings from winning the World Cup of Pool last week, together with his teammate Darren Appleton.

 

The match between Gray and Boyes promised to be the toughest match of the day so far… at least on paper. But it turned out to be a one-sided affair to the benefit of Boyes. He stormed off like a hurricane and before Gray even knew what happened, the score was 6:0 in favor of Boyes. That progress of the match was definitely not foreseeable. Gray only managed to open his account in the 7th rack, turning the score 1:6. From then on, both actors took turns in winning racks but Gray’s resistance was already broken. 9:3 was the clear final score in favor of Boyes who will proceed to the 2nd winner’s round while Gray needs to find his rhythm over on the loser’s side.

 

Other interesting results of the early rounds today include Marco Teutscher (NED) defeating his teammate Ivo Aarts (NED) with 9:3 in winner’s round 1. Both players belong to the „young orange“ team around coach Alex Lely. It is interesting to see that Aarts probably does not have the best year in 2014. He was rising high in 2013 and early 2014 but his performance seems to be stuck at the moment. Hopefully for him he will be able to find his way back into the tournament on the loser’s side while Teutscher continues in the winner’s bracket.

 

All time favorite and BCA Hall of Famer Ralf Souquet (GER) had a heartbreaker in his first match with youngster Danie Tangudd (SWE). Souquet won by a whisker with 9:8. Tangudd, who had already defeated Thomas Poeschl (GER) 9:5 this morning, is representing the new generation of European Pool. Coming just out of the youth, he obviously managed to give a hard time to legend Souquet. He almost had him down. This time, experience won over youth. It is going to be very interesting to follow the course of players like Tangudd. There is definitely more to come from him.

 

In the all-Polish clash between Piotr Kudlik and Radoslaw Babica, Kudlik remained the upper hand and sent Babica to the left side of the draw, winning with 9:6.

 

Four out of 11 tables can be watched LIVE throughout the event on www.kozoom.com. The event will be hosted by the European Pocket Billiard Federation EPBF and organized by International Billiard Promotion, IBP. For further information, please check the event website at www.eurotouronline.com or contact the EPBF press office at press@epbf.com