WITH TEMPERATURES OUTSIDE tipping 32 degrees, the venue was surprisingly cool inside as eight rounds of play were completed to arrive at a final 16 at the PREDATOR Austrian Open. The strongest contingent is Germany with six players represented including Ralf Souquet and Stefan Kasper, but one major name missing is Joshua Filler, who was ousted by countryman Ugur Turku by an 11-5 upset scoreline.
Turku put some distance between himself and Filler early on and kept it that way to canter home a comfortable winner. He has equalled his best-ever finish at a Euro Tour and now Roman Hybler stands between him and going one better.
Another German player striding through was Felix Vogel, an 11-3 winner over Emil Andre Gangflot. The super-talented youngster will be looking for his first Euro Tour title tomorrow having finished runner-up twice last year.
Felix Vogel
Vogel said, “I’m happy to get through to the last 16 because I had a very long day today, I think five or six matches. It was very hard but in the end I’m happy to win against some top players and of course to win against Emil was very satisfying. Unfortunately, he couldn’t bring his best match but I played good so I’m happy. Of course, I hope to win all my matches tomorrow. I start with the last 16 and I hope end with the final!”
Another player knocking on the door of his maiden Tour win is Serbia’s Aleksa Pecelj who enjoyed a lop-sided 11-3 win against Poland’s Szymon Kural.
Commented Pecelj, “I felt pretty good – in the beginning I was breaking and running a couple of games and he was just sitting in the chair. When he started having a few chances, the rails are a little bit bouncy and he didn’t have a chance to get used to the table, missed a few positions and I took over and played really good. I’ve been close a couple of times and my game is good to win a Euro Tour. You need to have a little bit of luck and I hope for that and calmness tomorrow.”
Aleksa Pecelj
The final match of the day on the TV table saw Sanjin Pehlivanovic edge past Max Lechner 11-9 in a high-quality encounter. The Bosnian has yet to win a Euro Tour but he feels that this could be his week.
He said, “I’m feeling good all tournament and this match I made, like, nine runouts. Max played good as well but I’m really satisfied with my game and tomorrow is a new day, new tournament, last 16 and hopefully I can win my first Euro Tour. If I continue playing like this and breaking like this then I don’t see why not.”
Sanjin Pehlivanovic
The round of 16 starts at 10.00 on Saturday morning with the semi-finals scheduled for 15.00 and 17.30. The final takes place at 20.00. The 64-player Women’s Predator Austrian Open gets underway on Saturday at 9.00, playing down to the final which takes place at 17.00 on Sunday. Races are to 7 for double elimination, and then 9 for single elimination. Both events operate a two-racks alternate break system.
This year sees a new streaming platform for all Euro Tour and European Championships events.
Table 1 and 2 will be streamed throughout on YouTube, via the Pro Billiard TV channel – https://www.youtube.com/@ProBilliardTV
For all results, live scoring and draw, visit https://www.epbf.com/tournaments/eurotour/information/
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