With solid performances, Mark Gray (GBR) won the Dynamic Billard Austrian Open and Jasmin Ouschan (AUT) won the Ballazzo Austrian Women’s Open in Alpina Sports and Wellness Hotel in St. Johann i.Pg., Austria.
The men’s final was played between highly favored Mark Gray and underdog Ronald Regli (SUI). The way to the final match today lead Regli over Petri Makkonen (FIN) 9:7, Ivo Aarts (NED) 9:6 and Marco Teutscher (NED) 9:5 in the semi-finals. Gray defeated Imran Majid (GBR) 9:3, Sebastian Staab (GER) 9:6 and Joshua Filler (GER) 9:6 for his seat in the final match. Gray, being the favored player here took the stage and opened his account first. After Gray took a 2:0 lead, Regli was able to pull two racks back and tie the match at 2:2. The match went along quite evenly with both players taking racks but Gray always had that small advantage over Regli at all times. At 5:5, Gray went ahead and took the next three racks in order to get on the hill with 8:5. In rack 14, Regli was a bit unlucky. He went for a jumpsuit on the 3-ball but he left it hanging over the pocket for Gray. That brought the Brit back to the table who showed no mercy and ran the final rack to win the match and the tournament with 9:5. That victory puts Gray on top of the European rankings.
Top Eight Finishers Dynamic Billard Austrian Open
- Mark Gray (GBR)
- Ronald Regli (SUI)
- Marco Teutscher (NED)
Joshua Filler (GER) - Wojciech Szewczyk (POL)
Ivo Aarts (NED)
Wiktor Zielinski (POL)
Sebastian Staab (GER)
The women’s final was played between Jasmin Ouschan and Kamila Khodjaeva (BEL). Both players know each other quite well. Khodjaeva won her semi-final with Vania Franco (POR) 7:2 while Ouschan took down Amalia Matas (ESP) 7:4.
The encounter started with Ouschan drawing first blood in the match. Of course, she was the favorite player in the match. But Khodjaeva gave her a good challenge and after three racks, Khodjaeva was up 2:1. The next racks were determined by safety play. Ouschan forced Khodjaeva quite often to come up with jump shots since she played excellent safety position. Subsequently, Ouschan pulled a few racks from Khodjaeva and took a 4:2 lead. This tactical change seemed to work for Ouschan. Khodjaeva took a time-out at that point in time, probably to reshape and think about a solution against Ouschan’s new tactics. It looked as if the time-out did its job.
Khodjaeva won the next rack and shortened the distance to Ouschan to 3:4. The next break was Ouschan’s to come up. After a few safety shots, Khodjaeva actually left a good safe for Ouschan. Jasmin had to go rail first on the 2-ball when she did not only hit the 2-ball but flukes it in together with the 3-ball, having an open rack in front of her. The balls were definitely rolling in her favor at that point in time of the match. She ran the rack and went up 5:3.
But Khodjaeva never gave in. She pulled the next two racks back and kept the match a tight affair. 5:5 was the score after 50 minutes of playing time. Now it was a race to two! To the shock of the audience, Khodjaeva took the next racks and went on the hill first, leading 6:5 over Ouschan now.
And as if it could not have gotten any worse for Ouschan, she broke in rack 12 and scratched with 3 balls down. That was the perfect opportunity for „The Dark Angel“ Kamila Khodjaeva to win the tournament. But she missed a makable 5-ball. The pressure was on for both players. Ouschan used all her experience and joined Khodjaeva on the hill. Now the score was 6:6 with one more rack to go.
Khodjaeva was breaking the rack. She had balls down but no shot on the 1-ball. She played a push-out and Ouschan came up with a good safety position for her. Khodjaeva hit the 1-ball rail first but left a shot for Ouschan. Ouschan went for the rack and pocketed the needed 9-ball with a combo over the 5-ball. That brought her the victory in the tournament.
Mark Gray and Jasmin Ouschan
歐巡賽 奧地利公開賽落幕 Gray 與Ouschan 分獲冠軍
2016 歐巡賽-奧地利公開賽落下帷幕，在最終進行的決賽上，英國好手Mark Gray 9-5 輕取黑馬 Ronald Regli，奧地利本土名將 Jasmin Ouschan 則7-6險勝 Khodjaeva，分獲男女冠軍。
男子決賽在 Gray 與來自瑞士的黑馬 Ronald Regli 之間上演。在前幾輪比賽中，Regli 分別以9-7、9-6、9-5的比分先後將 Petri Makkonen、Ivo Aarts 和 Marco Teutscher 淘汰出局，殺入決賽。而 Gray 則一路擊敗了包括在此前歐錦賽中大放異彩的約 Joshua Filler 在內的眾多好手。決賽進程較快，Gray 率先取得2-0領先，但 Regli 馬上還以顏色將比分扳平。接下來，二人你追我趕，一路來到5-5平的局面，Regli 更多地扮演了追趕者的角色。此後，Gray 突然發力連下四局，以9-5的總比分擊敗 Regli，奪得冠軍。
女子決賽由奧地利本土名將 Jasmin Ouschan 迎戰比利時“黑天使” Kamila Khodjaeva。
半決賽中，Ouschan 7-4力克西班牙好手Amalia Matas，而高加瓦則7-2輕取葡萄牙的Vania Franco。決賽中，Ouschan很快進入狀態先拔頭籌。Khodjaeva不甘示弱，連追兩局將比分反超。之後，Ouschan利用豐富的大賽經驗，轉換為防守戰術，逼迫Khodjaeva失誤，趁機連贏三局，再度取得領先。面對Ouschan的戰術變化，年輕的Khodjaeva沒有自亂陣腳，請求暫停調整狀態。暫停回來後，Khodjaeva扳回一局，將比分差距縮小到3-5。Ouschan沒有因此改變戰術，繼續用防守周旋，並順利再下一局。
不利局面下，Khodjaeva沒有放棄，反而表現出了超常的韌性，穩紮穩打，再度將比分追平，並順勢再拿一局，率先獲得賽點。第12局，Khodjaeva在處理簡單局面時犯下致命失誤，打丟簡單5號球，Ouschan笑納大禮將比賽拖入決勝局。決勝局由 Khodjaeva衝球，有球入袋，但不能進攻1號球，Khodjaeva選擇推球，但給Ouschan留下了做出高質量安全球的機會。Ouschan做出安球，Khodjaeva不得已只能勾球，結果給 Ouschan留下了進攻機會。Ouschan接管台面後輕鬆上手，最終用一個5號傳9號的組合球將比賽結束，從而以 7-6 擊敗Khodjaeva驚險奪冠。
Top Eight Finishers Ballazzo Austrian Women’s Open
- Jasmin Ouschan (AUT)
- Kamila Khodjaeva (BEL)
- Vania Franco (POR)
Amalia Matas (ESP) - Sara Rocha (POR)
Christine Wiechert (GER)
Kristina Tkach (RUS)
Veronika Ivanovskaia (GER)
That concludes the coverage from Sports- and Wellness Hotel Alpina, Alpendorf, St. Johann i.Pg., Austria. The next stop of the Euro-Tour will be from June 2nd-4th in Hotel Acapulco, Catalkoy, Kyrenia, North Cyprus.
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The event was 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 eurotouronline.com, visit us on Facebook or check out our youtube channel for regular news clips or contact our press office.