Judgement day has arrived at the Dynamic Billard Dutch Open in Leende, The Netherlands. The single elimination round of the last 32 players has been played tonight and probably the most remarkable and spectacular result was Alexander Kazakis’ (GRE) triumph over Mario He (AUT) with 9:8.
Actually, the match went very much as expected. Both contestants are able to perform on a very high level and so they both did in the beginning of the match. They knew that valuable points and prize money was at stake. Kazakis turned out to have a better roll of the balls and played quite confident. He was up 7:5 and 8:6 with a promising look at the finish line. But He struck back and got to 7:8. Then, Kazakis cleared the rack and lined up a straight 9-ball which was lying 20cm away from the pocket with the cue ball being 20cm away from the 9-ball. The shot was as easy as it can get. But what happened then can hardly be described. Kazakis was probably already celebrating the victory and his promotion into the last 16 players of the event when he executed the shot because… he missed it! It remained hanging over the pocket. Kazakis kind of collapsed on the table since he could not believe what he’d just done. Mario He also could not believe what he saw. He received an additional life in the match, completely unexpected for him! So He went for the break shot in rack 17 and made a ball with a shot on the 1-ball. The 6-ball was close to the 9-ball and lined up in the direction of the corner pocket but it needed to be hit from a certain angle. So Mario He went for the balls and lined up the winning shot but he placed the cue ball a little bit too high. So he had to fire the shot at a high speed in order to prevent the cue ball from obstructing the 9-ball on its way into the pocket. The Austrian fired the shot, the 9-ball went in and the cue ball kissed the 7-ball at high speed and scratched in the side pocket. What an exchange of emotions in that match. Kazakis was now in the seat, still struggling with his mistake from the rack before and got to the table with ball in hand and four balls left on the table. He ran them and won the match with 9:8. That could probably very well be seen as an early Christmas present for him. Kazakis will meet David Alcaide (ESP) tomorrow who eliminated Karol Skowerski (POL) 9:6.
Results from the last 32 players
Tomasz Kaplan (POL) v Konrad Juszczyszyn (POL) 5:9
Marco Spitzky (GER) v Francisco Sanchez Ruiz (ESP) 3:9
Joshua Filler (GER) v Christian Sparrenloev-Fischer (SWE) 7:9
Ruslan Chinakhov (RUS) v Wojtek Trajdos (POL) 7:9
Fedor Gorst (RUS) v Daryl Peach (GBR) 9:7
Sebastian Ludwig (GER) v Mieszko Fortunski (POL) 5:9
Alexander Kazakis (GRE) v Mario He (AUT) 9:8
David Alcaide (ESP) v Karol Skowerski (POL) 9:6
Albin Ouschan (AUT) v Mark Gray (GBR) 5:9
Denis Grabe (EST) v Eklent Kaci (ALB) 9:7
Maximilian Lechner (AUT) v Wojciech Szewczyk (POL) 4:9
Jayson Shaw (GBR) v Imran Majid (GBR) 4:9
Roman Hybler (CZE) v Radoslaw Babica (POL) 9:6
Marco Teutscher (NED) v Mateusz Sniegocki (POL) 4:9
Petri Makkonen (FIN) v Wiktor Zielinski (POL) 9:8
Francisco Diaz-Pizarro (ESP) v Niels Feijen (NED) 6:9
Last 16 players line-up
Konrad Juszczyszyn (POL) v Francisco Sanchez Ruiz (ESP)
Christian Sparrenloev-Fischer (SWE) v Wojtek Trajdos (POL)
Fedor Gorst (RUS) v Mieszko Fortunski (POL)
Alexander Kazakis (GRE) v David Alcaide (ESP)
Mark Gray (GBR) v Denis Grabe (EST)
Wojciech Szewczyk (POL) v Imran Majid (GBR)
Roman Hybler (CZE) v Mateusz Sniegocki (POL)
Petri Makkonen (FIN) v Niels Feijen (NED)
Tomorrow, the Dynamic Billard Dutch Open will continue at 10:00 CET with matches from the last 16 players single elimination. From that round the match between Mark Gray and Denis Grabe will be broadcasted LIVE and FREE on the EPBF Facebook page. The semi-finals are played at 14:00 and 15:30 with the final match scheduled for 17:30 local time.
The Euro-Tour is played on 11 tables which are all streamed LIVE throughout the whole event. In order to be able to follow all the action LIVE, premium membership can be purchased at www.kozoom.com. Once a premium membership is held, all events for the respective period of time can be viewed LIVE. Additionally, a huge video gallery is contained in the website.
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.