THE DYNAMIC BILLARD Euro Tour returns to one of its most popular venues as the St Johann im Pongau Open gets underway this Friday 14th April in the picturesque Austrian Alpine town. In fact, the Euro Tour’s history here goes as far back as 2010 when Karl Boyes defeated Nick van den Berg for his only Dynamic Billard Euro Tour victory. Since then, the likes of the Likes of Niels Feijen, Dennis Grabe, Mark Gray, Mario He, Alexander Kazakis, Eklent Kaci and Joshua Filler have all recorded championship wins in St. Johann.
Given the popularity of the venue, there is a whopping field of 246 players representing 41 countries registered to compete this week and due to venue sizing, the tournament is lengthened to four days with a conclusion being played out 17th April. The semi-finals and the final will be broadcast live or delayed to ten countries across Europe. For all other territories, play is available throughout via the EPBF website.
In addition, there is a Women’s Euro Tour event taking place on April 15th, concluding on Sunday 16th April. 55 players from 20 nations have registered which means that over 300 players will be in attendance in St Johann this weekend.
The defending champion this week is the ever-green Niels Feijen (Netherlands) who comes to St. Johann as the tour’s most successful player here, having recorded three victories in the Austrian mountains since the Euro Tour first visited in 2010. Wins in 2013, 2015 as well as last year where he defeated Francisco Sanchez Ruiz in the final, make this a happy hunting ground for the Terminator.
The 46 year-old Dutchman explained why, “I think, first of all, I really enjoy being in St. Johann. It’s a lovely place and the weather has always been awesome when we’ve been here. It’s a feel good place, you have the wellness, the swimming pool, the fresh air, you can go for a walk, and that’s good for the mind, good for the soul and that’s good for the game.
“It’s a great place to compete and that helped me get my focus right. Last year, I’ve enjoyed the view from the room, my concentration was good and levels were high and that resulted in another win. I know it’s one of the players favourite spots and not to be negative, a lot of the places we play in through the year are pretty boring. And St Johann is the exception to that and I think the best Euro Tour there is in the year and always a full field.
Defending champion, Niels Feijen (file: 2022 ET St. Johann im Pongau Open)｜©EPBF
Despite being at the veteran stage of his career, Feijen doesn’t go with the prevailing notion that with age comes fallibility; “It’s just a myth that if you’re getting older, you’re going to lose it and blah blah blah. The thing that does matter when you’re older is that you have more obligations. You have family and other stuff that you’re taking care of on the side so that reduces your focus if you let it.
“And maybe if you’ve been competing for 25 years as a pro then your hunger can go down and I’ve realised that I’m in the final phase of my career and instead of that making me less hungry it’s making me hungrier. I want to go out with a bang and that means good results and not getting weaker and weaker to the point where I don’t want to play anymore. I like to compete and to compete well otherwise I don’t want to do it. Excellence is high on my list. If I commit well and make the right choices then my game is as good as ever. I think I’m a better player now than when I won the world title in 2014. As long as I take care of myself then I can compete at a high level. I don’t think I’m done yet and have plenty more in the tank,” he added.
As well as the prize money, there are Tour ranking points on offer, so there is everything to play for. All Euro Tour tournaments are 9-ball and players compete in a double-elimination format, playing down to the last 32 competitors, and then single elimination until the finish. All matches are races to 9 racks with alternate break.
All the matches can be viewed live by visiting www.epbf.com/tournaments/eurot
The semi-finals and final, played out on Monday night, will be live or highlights on the following television stations across Europe;
SportKlub HD – Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia,
Bosnia Herzegovina, Greece
Duo5 – Estonia
SportKlub – Poland
ORF – Austria
Results, live scoring, and draw are available at www.epbf.com