The 9-ball individuals have commenced at the Dynamic Billard European Championships for Men, Women and Wheelchair Athletes in the Salgados Palace Hotel in Albufeira, Portugal. In an exciting encounter in winner’s round 1, Marco Teutscher (NED) bested teammate Ivar Saris (NED) 9:8.
Teutscher had the far better start in the match. He took a comfortable 6:2 lead over Saris and the match did not look to become exciting or anything like it at all. It was expected to be a clear affair for Teutscher. But Saris has shown some impressive shooting during this week and did not want to give up without providing a heavy fight to Teutscher. After 10 racks, Teutscher was leading 7:3. All of a sudden the tide turned in the match and Saris got going. He won rack after rack and pulled incredible five racks in a row from Teutscher, being on the hill now with 8:7 over Teutscher. Now the heat was on in the match. Teutscher needed to come up with his best performance to even the match one last time at 8:8.
Rack 17 had to be the decider. That rack turned out to be nerve wrecking for both players and the audience. Teutscher committed the first mistake and gave the table with all balls spread out nicely to Saris. Saris played until he got to the 5-ball. He got no position to pocket it so he played a decent safety shot, leaving the cue ball on the foot rail with the 5-ball on the head rail with the 8-ball interfering a direct shot. Teutscher countered that position with a jump shot, leaving an equal situation for Saris now. Several safety shots were executed on the 5-ball when finally Teutscher forced Saris to commit a foul. That gave bad in hand for Teutscher who took his chance and ran the table to win the match by a margin of 9:8 over Saris. In the same round, Ralf Souquet (GER) won 9:2 over local hero Joao Grilo (POR).
Marco Teutscher (left) and Ivar Saris
In the women’s division, the defending Champion Kamila Khodjaeva (BEL) was not in attendance this year. One remarkable match however was the encounter between Kelly Fisher (GBR) and Veronika Ivanovskaia (GER). Fisher, the WPA World 10-ball Champion 2011 and World 9-ball Champion 2012, was the favoured player in that match. Holding a British passport but residing in the United States for quite some years now, Fisher came to the EC solely for the purpose to become first or second in the 9-ball in order to be nominated for the World Games in Poland this year. She is on a mission here in Albufeira. However, her European opponents also would like to have the honour to represent Europe at that high profile event, one of them being Ivanovskaia.
After 6 racks, Ivanovskaia was leading surprisingly clear with 5:1. In rack 7, she fell out of position for the 5-ball and gave the rack as a gift to Fisher instead of getting on the hill herself. That brought momentum back to Fisher’s game. She pulled rack after rack from Ivanovskaia and after 10 rack, the scoreboard only displayed a 6:4 lead for Ivanovskaia. Being on the hill, the German just could not close the book on the match. She committed a foul in a crucial situation at 6:4 and gave ball in hand to Fisher who ran the rack to close the gap to 5:6. The next rack started with a safety battle on the 1-ball. Attempting a safety shot on the 1-ball, Ivanovskaia scratched again and allowed Fisher to the table with ball in hand. The expirenced former World Champion showed nerves of steel and ran the rack to tie the match hill-hill at 6:6. That gave a second life to Fisher and the odds were going down for Ivanovskaia.
Veronika Ivanovskaia (GER)
The German then took her time-out and tried to get her things together and win the needed last frame. She broke the balls in rack 13 herself. To her horror, no ball went in, all balls were spread in a nice layout without any further problems and the cue ball was in a good position for pocketing the 1-ball. Now all chances were on Fisher’s side. But she got a bad position for the 3-ball so she decided to play a safety shot and leave Ivanovskaia an almost impossible position… almost! Ivanovskaia played a combination shot 3-ball to the 7-ball and ran the rack and finished Kelly Fisher’s hopes for an easy run to the title at the women’s 9-ball individuals with a 7:6 victory. Other remarkable results in the women’s division include Melanie Suessenguth (GER) defeating Tamara Peeters-Rademakers (NED) by a whisker 7:6. Peeters-Rademakers one round earlier defeated her niece Megan Rademakers (NED) with 7:2.
In the wheelchair division, all-time favourite Jouni Tahti (FIN) was taught a lesson in the first round by opponent Matt Duffy (GBR). 7:2 was the more than clear result in favour of Duffy in the first round of the 9-ball individuals in the wheelchair division. Defending Champion Henrik Larsson (SWE) won his opening match 7:3 over David Himpe (BEL).
Tonight, two more rounds of team competition will be played.
Tomorrow, the tournament will continue at 09:00 GMT with matches from the 9-ball individuals competition.
Every day, one match from the events will be shown LIVE on the Facebook page of the EPBF. 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 24 tables on the internet LIVE. The FB live matches are announced on the EPBF Facebook page around noon every day. Results and schedule can be found at www.europeanpoolchampionships.
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.epbf.com, visit us on Facebook or check out our youtube channel for regular news clips or contact our press office [email protected].