THE DYNAMIC BILLARD Treviso Open continued today through six rounds of play and just 16 players remain in the competition. One player taking his place tomorrow is Croatia’s Roberto Bartol, who has already recorded his best ever Euro Tour finish, with the chance of more to come. He beat veteran Alex Ley in the round of 32 and can look forward to playing Jere Virtaranta (Finland) tomorrow morning.
Bartol, who recently became a father, is currently ranked #22 and will only improve upon that this week.
He said, “This is my first last 16 and I had some luck in the beginning today, but overall, I played really well and this is a great feeling to have a chance tomorrow. I’m now playing so many tournaments and I’m looking to get better every time and I’m working really hard at it. I’ve had some chances in Euro Tour 9-ball events but my break hasn’t been up to it, so maybe 10-ball suits me better.”
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Felix Vogel, the 17-year-old German, is continuing his wonderful season despite still playing in the Under 19 category. Earlier in the year, Vogel grabbed the runner-up spot in Tallinn and continued through the summer with a fistful of medals in the Dynamic Billard European Junior Championships.
Today, he recorded wins over a pair of Polish players in Sambor Stachowiak and then Adam Stankiewicz to set up a last 16 match against Marco Spitzky (GER).
Commented Vogel, “First of all, the goal is to play my best billiards and try and make as few mistakes as possible. Today, I played really good and in the last 32, after 20 minutes it was 6-0 for me and I played really perfect. But I thought I’d finished the match in my mind and my opponent came back, but in the end, I found myself and was able to win it.
“The difference between today and maybe the last few Euro Tours was that I put too much pressure on myself, so now I just want to play pool. It was important to take a time-out at 6-4, he had the break and then he missed a 3 ball and I took the chance.”
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Despite winning European Championships and a WPA World 10-Ball Championship, Poland’s Wojciech Szewczyk has yet to record a Euro Tour title but he has every chance tomorrow following a battling performance after being sent to the one-loss side earlier in the day. He now plays Luca Menn (GER) tomorrow morning.
He said, “It’s always been a goal to win one and I do believe that it’s a special tournament, especially in my parents’ mind as they’ve always supported me particularly when I was starting out as kid. It was a huge event where I could play against world champions so they always dreamed that one day, I will win the Euro Tour. Obviously, the world championship probably satisfies them enough, but if I were ever to win a Euro Tour then that would be for them.
“I’ve been working on my break from the centre of the table because the World 8-Ball Championship is coming and the break here, though not the same, is similar. And that’s the key to winning matches, to have a decent, consistent break. You’d have to look really deeply at my stats going back but I kind of have a Treviso curse on me! I don’t think I’ve ever qualified for the last 16 here. Maybe once, I did but in the next match I lost to Kaci from being 7-1 up so it feels that the curse isn’t broken yet,” he added.
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Play restarts at 10.00 on Saturday morning with the last 16 matches. The quarter-finals start 12.oo with the semi-finals at 14.00 and 15.30. The championship match gets underway at 17.00. All matches are alternate break and a race-to-8 racks.
For viewers at home, Tables 1 & 2 will be streamed throughout on YouTube. Table 1 will be on the Kozoom channel, while Table 2 will be available throughout on the EPBF platform. All other tables can be viewed on the Kozoom.com website, where there are a variety of subscription options.
Table 1 link = https://www.youtube.com/@KozoomTV/streams
Table 2 link = https://www.youtube.com/@theepbf/streams
Tables 1-20 = https://home.kozoom.com/en/all-cue-sports