A totally unheralded player, Abdulrahman Alammar (KSA) squeaked past #17 ranked player Mateusz Sniegocki (POL) with 9:8 after a tremendous comeback.
It was not the first opponent from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia today for Sniegocki. In his first match he already met Hassan Alqahtani who also made the long trip from the middle eastern country to come to Italy and challenge the European pool elite. In that match, Sniegocki was already warned since he had a 5:2 lead over Alqahtani and just made it over the finish line, taking the match by a whisker with 9:8. Then he met Alammar, Alqahtani’s teammate. One more time, Sniegocki looked like the sure winner, leading 6:2 after eight racks. But Alammar demonstrated high class pool and really surprised the audience on site and at the computer screens since the match was streamed live on facebook as well. Alammar pulled back rack after rack from Sniegocki and made the match exciting again. He even managed to get on the hill first, taking an 8:7 lead over the Polish. Then, Sniegocki levelled that at 8:8 with a combination shot 5-9 into the corner pocket.
Left to right: A. Alammar, A. Ouschan & D. Corrieri
Now the pressure was on for both opponents with Alammar’s break shot coming up. He broke the rack and had two balls down but no shot on the 2-ball which was the ball on. A safety exchange followed with Alammar committing a foul shot giving ball in hand to Sniegocki. The layout on the table was everything else but easy with the 3-ball behind hidden behind the 4-ball. Sniegocki tried to play a weird position for the 3-ball and failed. All he could do then was leaving a tough shot for Alammar. The player from Saudi Arabia executed a brilliant safety shot on the 3-ball, opening the problem and hiding the cue ball frozen behind the 8-ball on the other end of the table. Sniegocki attempted a bank shot on the 3-ball but completely missed it. With ball in hand, Alammar went on and ran the rack, winning the match 9:8 after a furious comeback. He will now face Tim De Ruyter (NED) who defeated Sebastian Staab (GER) 9:3, in the winner’s qualification round while Sniegocki needs to take the detour over the loser’s side.
Other remarkable results from today include local hero Daniele Corrieri (ITA) taking the cake 9:8 against former World 9-Ball Champion Daryl Peach (GBR) in the same round. Also in winner’s round 2, Stefan Huber (AUT) totally unexpected smashed Alexander Kazakis (GRE) 9:0! What a bitter doughnut for Kazakis that was! Huber’s fellow countryman Albin Ouschan (AUT) brought his match home in winner’s round, winning 9:8 over Cyriel Ledoux (NED). The Dutch was really unlucky here since he had the break in rack 17. However, he came up dry with no balls down, leaving a shot on the 1-ball for Ouschan. With all his coolness and experience, the Austrian powerhouse cleared the table and took the match even under the highest pressure possible.
Tomorrow, the Dynamic Billard Treviso Open will continue at 09:00 CET with matches from loser’s round 2. The last 32 players single elimination matches will begin at 21:00 CET.
Every day, one match from the events 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 16 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 will be 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].