THE 2023 LONGONI 9 BALL LEAGUE got underway on Friday evening as two matches completed, giving wins to Poland and Spain at the Kalev Sports Hall in Tallinn. The two victorious pairs were finalists in last year’s event and their form carried forward in Estonia.
The evening’s programme was shortened as two of the matches were postponed due to travel issues for the competing players but the quality of pool was such to entertain the fans in attendance as well as viewers watching on the stream.
Defending champions Poland got off to a comfortable start as they beat Turkish North Cyprus 7-3. Wojciech Szewczyk, an ever-present last year, was joined by Miesko Fortunski who was making his Longoni 9 Ball League debut. The top two qualifying players in the rankings were Wiktor Zielinski and Fortunski, but Zielinski’s absence from the event gave Szewczyk the chance to continue his run.
Poland_Szewczyk (R) & Fortunski (L)｜©EPBF
Making their first appearance were the TNC pairing of Mustafa Alnar (Euro Tour #26) and Osman Sanlisoy (ET#181). The Turkish Cypriots did well to keep themselves in the match in the early stages, holding their more experienced opponents at 2-2, before the Poles pulled away as they moved the score to 5-2.
A scratch following a jump shot from Fortunski, got the Northern Cypriots back to the table and they cleared up for 5-3. The Poles though, took the next to reach the hill. At 6-3 down, a solid break from Alnar gave Turkish North Cyprus a great chance to keep themselves in the match but Sanlisoy missed the 6 ball and it was game over as the defending champions took the victory.
Commented Szewczyk; “I’m the lucky guy today because I wanted to play in the doubles and wanted to carry on as it’s a lot of fun, good experience and there’s prizes as well. I’m just fortunate Wiktor couldn’t make it! It sounds bad but I benefitted from that and I was happy to be able to partner Miesko this time.”
Fortunski added, “I didn’t play last year in the Longoni tournament but I watched and enjoyed it and kept my fingers crossed for the Polish team. They made a good job of it and I’m really happy to have played with Wojciech tonight.”
Spain_Alcaide (R) & Sanchez Ruiz (L)｜©EPBF
The Spanish pair of David Alcaide and Sanchez Ruiz are arguably the best scotch doubles pairing in the world and they made it an unhappy Longoni debut for home-town players Dennis Grabe and Karl Gnadeberg of Estonia.
Spain got off to a flyer and had got to five racks before Estonia put their first one on the scoreboard. However, another dry break from the Estonians put the Spanish back at the table. And although it was a drawn-out rack, Spain prevailed to put themselves on the hill at 6-1.
They made no mistakes in what was the final rack to give themselves the perfect start to their 2023 campaign.
Full Results
Group A – Poland (Fortunski / Szewczyk) 7 – 3 Turkish North Cyprus
(Other group member – Austria)
Group B – Spain (Alcaide / Sanchez Ruiz) 7 – 1 Estonia (Grabe /
Gnadeberg)
(Other group member – Czech Republic)
The other two matches scheduled for this evening – Norway v Switzerland in Group C and Germany v Netherlands in Group D were both deferred until the next Euro Tour stop in Austria in April as some of the players had flight issues and could not reach the venue in good time.
As per the format of the Longoni 9 Ball League, the bottom placed teams in the four groups from last year have been replaced for this season. That means that Albania, Greece, Serbia & Italy have stood down to be replaced with Czech Republic, Hungary, Turkish North Cyprus and Switzerland.
Play reconvenes at St Johan im Pongau, Austria with the second round of matches which take place on Friday 14th April.