The Longoni 9 Ball League gets a busy period of 9 ball action underway in Lasko, Slovenia tomorrow (Friday) as Spain take on Bosnia & Herzegovina and then Germany face off against Poland in two highly enticing semi-final matches.
In fact, the Longoni 9 Ball League is the first event in a pool extravaganza that follows with men’s and women’s Euro Tour tournaments and concludes with the European Pool Championships Seniors which runs from 8th to 15th October in the same venue.
Scotch doubles is the game and the matches move to race-to-9 racks with alternate break. Arguably, the most entertaining format for pool when played at the highest level, scotch doubles sees each pair negotiate their way through the rack using alternate shots.
Having started the competition with twelve teams, just four remain and that will be down to two following tomorrow’s play. Each team is made up of the two highest-ranked players on the Euro Tour prior to each round of matches. The Spanish pairing of David Alcaide and Francisco Sanchez Ruiz are both in fine form with Sanchez Ruiz in particular enjoying an incredible 12 months which has seen him rack up multiple major tournament wins.
They face Bosnia & Herzegovina, who will surely be the underdogs going into the match. but Sanjin Pehlivanovic and Ajdin Piknjac will surely have something to say about that. Both BIH players are beginning to break through and Pehlivanovic, in particular, is looking to build on a silver medal from the summer’s World Games in the USA.
The second semi-final features Germany against Poland and looks set to be a very close-run thing. Representing Germany are Joshua Filler, without argument one of the world’s highest level players, and the improving Tobias Bongers who will be looking to give full support to the incredible shot-making abilities of his cohort.
Poland, by equal measure, are fielding a matching pair of world beaters in Wiktor Zielinski and Wojciech Szewczyk. Zielinski, currently ranked ET No.2, has enjoyed a stellar year including back to-back Euro Tour victories. Szewczyk has been around the game longer but enjoyed his breakthrough win earlier this year as he took down the WPA World 10 Ball Championship in Las Vegas. On paper, this match seems impossible to call.
The opening Longoni 9 Ball League semi-final gets underway at 20:00 local time with the second semi-final scheduled at 21:30. The two successful teams will then contest the final which takes place in Treviso, Italy on Friday 25th November.
The winning team will receive €4,500 which includes prize money for wins in the group stages. The runners-up receive 2500 Euro plus group earnings and as with all the teams, the total prize money will be divided into match shares with one share for each team appearance.
Matches can be viewed live on the free Kozoom platform, TV.Kozoom as well as on the Longoni 9 Ball League & EPBF Facebook pages.