THE BEST FEMALE players in Europe are gathering at the Alpina Sporthotel in the picturesque mountain town of St Johann im Pongau, Austria for the third tournament of the year on the Predator Euro Tour Women. 43 players are in attendance and fierce competition is expected when plays gets underway on Saturday 25th June.
Looking to repeat her success in the last Euro Tour event in Treviso in May, when she beat Portugal’s Sara Rocha 7-5 to take the title, is Ana Gradisnik of Slovenia. Currently sitting on top of the rankings, Gradisnik holds a 240-point lead as head of the standings, but is defending 550 points which she gained from victory in this same venue a
year ago.
The ranking is calculated on a rolling six event series with each player dropping the event which yielded them the least points. Once an event is concluded, the first event from the six is dropped to be replaced by points from the current tournament.
There are plenty of strong players at the top of the rankings as Spain’s Amalia Matas, Oliwia Zalewska of Poland and Pia Filler (Germany) lie in wait, filling the next three spots on the ranking. Filler is awaiting her maiden Euro Tour win, whilst the other two have both recorded title victories in the past eight months.
Filling out the top six spots on the ranking are Eyllul Kibaroglu (Turkey) and the aforementioned Sara Rocha who both lie on 1880 points, 440 points adrift.
Ana Gradisnik｜©EPBF
Despite the pressure that comes with being No.1, Ana Gradisnik was having none of it; “I’m just trying to focus on my game and try to enjoy it and that’s it. I’ll play one match after the other and not think about anything else.
“There are some great players up in the rankings and I want to play them as we challenge each other and I’m looking forward to playing against them the most. My practice has been fairly steady.
“Every day, I try to balance it and then a few days before the tournament I don’t practice as much and just relax a little bit and rest. This is just so that I enter the tournament with a new energy. I have no prediction as to whether I can win; I just want to see where it takes me,” she added.
Play gets underway at 9.00am local time tomorrow. All Predator Euro Tour Women tournaments are 9-ball and the field contest a double-elimination format, playing down to the last 16 competitors, and then single elimination until the finish. All matches are a race to 7 racks with alternate break.
All the matches can be viewed live at www.kozoom.com
Results, live scoring and draw are available at www.epbf.com