In an intense match, „The Terminator“ Niels Feijen (NED) took down Tomasz Kaplan (POL) by a hair’s breadth with 9:8.
Kaplan had the far better start in the match. He was always ahead of Feijen and looked like the sure winner for a long time. He was ahead 5:2 and 8:3 and it seemed to be just a matter of time before Feijen would be ousted from the event. But Feijen is known to be a tough cookie at times. He does not give up before his opponent pockets the final 9-ball on him. In this match, Kaplan had several chances to finish the match in his favour. Probably the best chance and at the same time his last chance was in rack 15 when he was still ahead 8:6. He had pocketed all balls but lined up the 9-ball a bit negligent. He had a thin angle and attempted to cut the 9-ball in the corner pocket. To the shock of Kaplan and the audience, the 9-ball hung in the pocket. Feijen accepted the gift and ran the next rack with his own break shot to get on the hill himself, tying the match at 8:8. Kaplan executed the break shot in the deciding rack #17, but no ball was pocketed and he left a shot for Feijen. Feijen ran the rack and won the match after a tremendous comeback. „The Terminator“ achieved the mission impossible to turn the match around after having trailed 3:8 and took down Kaplan with 9:8 in order to advance to the round of the last 16 players.
Niels Feijen (left) and Tomasz Kaplan
Lineup last 16 players single elimination
Abdullah Alshammari KSA v Evangelos Vettas GRE
Alexander Kazakis GRE v Ruslan Chinakhov RUS
Joshua Filler GER v Ralf Souquet GER
Niels Feijen NED v Eklent Kaci ALB
Wiktor Zielinski POL v Maximilian Lechner AUT
Marc Bijsterbosch NED v Denis Grabe EST
Markus Buck GER v Roman Hybler CZE
Wojciech Szewczyk POL v Mario He AUT
In a loser’s qualification match, former World Champion Oliver Ortmann (GER) met Karol Skowerski (POL). The match was quite open with Ortmann having the better start. However, Skowerski took his time-out and closed in on Ortmann. He even overtook the German and took a 7:5 lead over him. Ortmann then took his time-out and got back to 7:7. At that stage, Skowerski ran another rack which brought him on the hill with 8:7. The 16th rack was shaped by errors from both players. Ortmann had the chance to make the rack and tie the match at 8:8. But he missed the 3-ball. Then, Skowerski ran out of position. Ortmann got back to the table and missed another makable shot. Skowerski in turn ran out of position, again, but fired the 5-ball and the 7-ball over one rail into the center of the pocket. He then ran the remaining balls and took the match with 9:7 over Ortmann. This kept Skowerski alive in the event while Ortmann was sent on his way home.
Other remarkable results include the match in the loser’s qualification round between local hero Albin Ouschan (AUT) and dark horse Edmond Zaja (ALB). It was clear before the match that this would be a fierce fight for both of them. Though Ouschan has much more trophies to show, Zaja was hungry and that says it all about the expectations for that match. The demand of the audience was completely fulfilled since both of them played extraordinary high class pool. Zaja stunned everyone and raced to the hill with an 8:6 advantage over Ouschan. After 16 racks, the showdown was there with both players on the hill at 8:8. Zaja had the break shot. The 3-ball went in and he had a nice and comfortable layout in front of him. But he still needed to pocket eight balls to win this battle. He seemed to be completely relaxed and played all balls at a decent speed, demonstrating a huge portion of confidence to whoever watched him play. Consequently, he pocketed all balls and ran the rack to take the huge surprise victory over Albin Ouschan with 9:8. With this victory, Zaja made his way into the last 32 players of the Dynamic Billard Sankt Johann im Pongau Open 2018. Ouschan however needed another victory in the loser’s qualification round where he faced Sergey Lutsker (RUS). The young Russian gave Ouschan a hard time and in the end won the battle with 9:8 after an energetic match to eliminate Ouschan completely from the tournament.
Tomorrow, the event will continue at 10:00 CET with matches from the last 16 players single elimination. At 09:00, the EPBF Ballazzo Open for women will commence.
Every day, two matches from the event will be shown LIVE on the Facebook page of the EPBF for free. 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 live via www.kozoom.com who stream the whole event on 20 tables on the internet LIVE. The FB live matches are announced on the EPBF Facebook page every day. Results and schedules can be found at www.eurotouronline.com so why not come and check out all the LIVE action of the Dynamic Billard Treviso Open.
The event is 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.eurotouronline.com visit us on Facebook or check out our youtube channel for regular news clips or contact our press office [email protected].