Mark Gray (GBR) has already taken four victims down in the Dynamic Billard Portuguese Open in Salgados Palace Hotel in Albufeira, Portugal. Today in the round of the last 32 men single elimination, Gray wiped the floor with Daniel Tangudd (SWE) and handed him a doughnut, winning the match 9:0. Before that match, Gray’s route to the single elimination stage of the event led over Athanasios Vrakas (GRE) 9:3, Sergey Lutsker (RUS) 9:3 and Marcus Chamat (SWE) 9:1 even. Altogether, Gray allowed his opponents to win seven (7!) racks against him in four matches! What an impressive performance from the Brit so far.
Mark Gray (left) and Kateryna Polovinchuk
Otter remarkable results from today’s rounds include Ronald Regli (SUI) conquering Mieszko Fortunski (POL) 9:8 in winner’s round 2. Regli then went on and also defeated Roman Hybler (CZE) 9:8 before he fell to the sharp blade of young Wiktor Zielinski (POL) 4:9 in the single elimination round which puts in in 17th place. Mats Schjetne (NOR) upset current World 9-ball Champion Albin Ouschan (AUT) and overran him with 9:5. Then he was overrun himself, losing 4:9 to Sebastian Ludwig (GER). In the loser’s qualification round, Schjetne went up against Fortunski. The Norwegian managed to win that encounter 9:7 and advanced to the single elimination stage. There, he won 9:7 over Mateusz Sniegocki (POL) and will meet Joshua Filler (GER) tomorrow at 10:00 GMT for a spot in the quarter-finals.
In the women’s division, Kateryna Polovinchuk (UKR) is playing a nice tournament so far. Last night, she defeated Vivien Schade (GER) by a margin of 7:6 and advanced to the winner’s qualification round where she met Melissa Rademakers (NED) today. Polovinchuk proved stronger than Rademakers and handed her a 7:5 defeat to secure her spot in the single elimination round of the last 16 players. There she will receive an opponent who still needs to qualify and will be drawn in the match against her at 12:00 GMT. Also well on track is Jasmin Ouschan (AUT) who took down Veronika Ivanovskaia (GER) by 7:6 only. The same result was good for Katarzyna Wesolowska (POL) who made it over Ine Helvik (NOR) in the round of the last 16 remaining women.
Another interesting incident occurred during today’s matches. For quite some years now, EPBF conducts anti-doping tests on a random basis at the events. These tests are requested by IOC and WADA these days and all sports federations must follow this procedure. Today, one test was arranged and four matches were determined from which the losing players had to go to the testing. However, one player denied being tested although he was drawn for it. After being informed that denying a doping test would result in the same penalty as having a positive finding in the sample, the respective player still did not want to take the test. This behaviour was immediately reported to the higher authorities and the outcome will very likely be that the player in question will receive a long ban from international as well as national billiard events, according to the WADA code which is binding for all sports federations worldwide. Conduct like this can and will not be tolerated and is regulated for all sports by the WADA codes and regulations.
The Dynamic Billard Portuguese Open in Salgados Palace Hotel in Albufeira, Portugal will continue tomorrow at 10:00 GMT with matches from last the 16 single elimination in the open event and at 09:30 GMT with matches from the loser’s qualification round in the women’s event.
Every day, one match from the event will be shown LIVE on the Facebook page of the EPBF. All Facebook users may check out the high standard of quality which is provided for all the events and see what the Kozoom members receive all the time. You can see all the matches on up to 24 tables live via www.kozoom.com who stream the whole event on the internet LIVE. The FB live matches are announced on the EPBF Facebook page around noon every day. Results and schedule can be found at www.eurotouronline.com so why not come and check out all the LIVE action of the Dynamic Billard Italian Open starting Thursday 30th March at 09:00h
The event will be 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.epbf.com, visit us on Facebook or check out our youtube channel for regular news clips or contact our press office [email protected].