After a dramatic final match, Ruslan Chinakhov (RUS) raised the trophy in the air at the Dynamic Billard Dutch Open at the Golden Tulip Jagershorst Hotel in Leende, The Netherlands tonight.
Chinakhov never had a victory at the Euro-Tour so far. However, this year he already won the European Championships 9-Ball and one of the WPS events in the United States. However, the Euro-Tour title was still not in his list of achievements. He made his way into the final match over Mats Schjetne (NOR) 9:5, Francisco Diaz-Pizarro (ESP) 9:6, Marco Teutscher (NED) 9:8 and finally his teammate Sergey Lutsker (RUS) 9:5. His opponent Christoph Reintjes (GER) also played an amazing tournament so far. His last appearance at the Euro-Tour is eight years ago and he came back to Leende to make it to the final of 199 top players, eliminating big guns including Jakub Koniar (SVK) 9:6, Wojciech Szewczyk (POL) 9:5, Niels Feijen (NED) 9:6 and Albin Ouschan (AUT) 9:6 in the semi-final match. The setup was prepared for a high-class pool final and the match kept all promises. Both players performed quite solid but Reintjes struggled with his break shot. After 6 racks, the German was even leading 4:2 with almost no break. That was due to the fact that Chinakhov missed some shots in the beginning and also played very offensively. But then, the „Siberian Express“ from Russia managed to turn the tide in the match. He took rack 7 after an illegal break from Reintjes. in the next rack, he missed an easy 2-ball but when Reintjes came up with a decent safety shot for him, he fired the 2-ball in with a jump shot and ran the rack to tie the match at 4:4. As the match continued, Reintjes could not come up with a good break shot. Out of 6 breaks, he had 5 of them illegal and had to give the table to Chinakhov. The Russian accepted those gifts and grew stronger while Reintjes’ performance suffered of course since he grew more and more nervous, seeing the score board only adding points on his oppenent’s side. In the end, Chinakhov took the match with 9:4 and deservedly won his first Euro-Tour event in his career. 2017 seems to be his year so far. Let’s see how long the „Siberian Express“ continues on that roll.
„When I met Reintjes in the final match, I remembered him from my early Euro-Tour days“, said Chinakhov after the final. „I saw his list of opponents and I must say that he probably had the tougher draw than me“, Chinakhov added. „I knew I had to perform well. In the final match, I was not as nervous as I was before because I was also tired after this long day of pool“, Chinakhov explained, „and in the end I think I have won because my break was better than his.“ „This year is quite successful for me so far and I hope I can keep up the good results“!
Top Eight Finishers
1. Ruslan Chinakhov (RUS)
2. Christoph Reintjes (GER)
3. Albin Ouschan (AUT)
Sergey Lutsker (RUS)
5. Jayson Shaw (GBR)
Niels Feijen (NED)
Oliver Ortmann (GER)
Marco Teutscher (NED)
Also today, the first rounds of the Dutch Women’s Open have been played. All-time favourite Kristina Tkach (RUS) started out as furiously as expected. In a full field of 64 participants, she defeated Vania Franco (POR) 7:2, Jennifer Vietz (GER) 7:0 even and Birgit Heidorn (GER) 7:1 in the winner’s qualification round to book her seat in the single elimination stage of the last 16 players. Another remarkable player that could make some noise is Eylul Kibaroglu (TUR). She won her first matches 7:6 over Monika Zabek (POL), 7:2 over Jessika Nilsson (SWE) and 7:5 over Palina Chernik (BLR). Melanie Suessenguth (GER), Oliwia Czuprynska (POL), Katarzyna Wesolowska (POL) and Veronika Ivanovskaia (GER) also belong to the circle of players that are expected to make it far in the event.
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 23 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.womeneurotouronline.com so why not come and check out all the LIVE action of the Dynamic Billard Dutch Open.
The Women Dutch Open at the Golden Tulip Jagershorst Hotel in Leende, The Netherlands will continue tomorrow morning at 09:30 CET with matches from the last 16 players single elimination. Additionally, the women’s event will start at 09:00 CET with first round matches.
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 press@epbf.com.