MIESKO FORTUNSKI of Poland, the highest ranked player coming into the tournament, justified the form lines as he took down the Dynamic Billard Tampere Open, beating the Netherland’s Marc Bijsterbosch 9-5 in the final match. For the 31 year-old from Lubin, it was his second Euro Tour title after winning in Italy seven years ago.
Fortunski came undefeated through the tournament and in the final began to pull away from Bijsterbosch, whose misfortunes off the break were a telling factor. The Pole, though, played with some intensity and it was enough to open up a wide lead which his opponent could never recover from.
After the match, Fortunski was naturally delighted, “I feel perfect! A couple of days before the tournament I did an interview and they asked how I would cope with being the highest ranked player coming into the tournament. Well, here’s my answer!
“I really want to get to No.1 on the European ranking and this result will really help me get there. I’ve been working with a mental coach for the past couple of months so this is hopefully just the first victory.”
In front of an appreciative crowd in Tampere, Bijsterbosch took the lag but with no shot on the 1 ball, he chose to push out. Fortunski put him back in and he proceeded to miss a very tight cut on the 1 ball. The Pole made the long pot, rail first and ran out to take the opener.
A solid break from the Pole only left the next ball, the 3, potentially missable but he slotted it home and cleared to increase his lead. A terrific break from Bijsterbosch saw two balls drop and an easy table ahead of him and he made no mistakes to open his account.
Fortunski made a major error when his positional shot to the 7 ball ran out of pace to leave the black 8 blocking. His safety wasn’t tight enough and Bijsterbosch took advantage to level the match. From the Dutchman’s break, the cue ball took a large knock from the 3 ball and disappeared into the top left pocket to give ball-in-hand to Fortunski. The Pole completed the runout to regain the lead.
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Fortunski wasn’t quite nailing his break shot but it was good enough to set up a possible out. He nearly lost position again but managed a tough layout to increase his lead at 4-2. Bijsterbosch‘s cue ball took another knock from his break-off and once again scratched, gifting another golden opportunity to his opponent and Fortunski took full advantage to increase his lead.
A good break from the Pole gave himself the opportunity although the table was no formality.
Playing with determined speed, Fortunski took his chances to open up a four-rack lead. There were more breaking woes for Bijsterbosch in the next, as he failed to comply with the three-point rule to hand the table back.
An easy snooker saw Marc fail to make contact and with ball-in-hand Fortunski cleared a difficult table to reach 7-2. Looking a little under pressure with the winning line in sight, Fortunski calmed his nerves with a nice break to leave himself an excellent chance of reaching the hill. He nearly messed up but a nice cut into the centre pocket kept him on track as he reached the hill at 8-2.
At last, Bijsterbosch delivered the break he wanted with four balls down and he duly despatched the remainder to keep himself alive. Breaking for match, Fortunski made an excellent break shot as three balls dropped, leaving himself a shot on the lowest numbered ball. A loose positional shot with three balls left, though saw the cue ball frozen to the 8. He tried a hopeful 8/9 combination which failed, leaving Bijsterbosch two balls to reduce the deficit to 8-4.
Back from the dead, Bijsterbosch fluked a golden break as the 9 ball got kicked twice into the corner pocket. There was some tension in the air now but Fortunski steadied himself with a break shot which gave him another great chance to close the match out. He made no mistakes as he sunk the final 9 to claim the Dynamic Billard Tampere Open.
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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.
The Dynamic Billard Euro Tour returns in late July at Podčetrtek in Slovenia, while action continues in Tampere this Thursday with the opening of the annual EPBF European Championships.
All the matches can be viewed live by visiting www.epbf.com/tournaments/eurotour/ and clicking on the ‘LIVE’ button. This will take you through to viewing options. In addition, selected matches will be streamed on Facebook Live on the EPBF page.
Results, live scoring, and draw are available at www.epbf.com