MADRID - At 24 years of age, David Martinez took one of the most wonderful victories in his career. The young Spanish talent, who became European junior champion in 2010, first defeated Daniel Sanchez in the semifinals of the Grand Prix in Madrid, in a sparkling final sprint. Also on Sunday, he won the final against David Zapata 40-37 in 31 innings. Thanks to tis victory in Madrid, Marinez climbs to the third place at the Spanish ranking.
The former student physical education, born in Moncada, close to Valencia, where he was playing billiards for the first time when he was twelve, had a very difficult start of the tournament, so he said. ,,I had no good feelings in the first matches, but little by little could grow to a better form'', David commented after the ceremony in the center of the Spanish Billiard Federation.
His match in the semi-final against the likely winner Dani Sánchez turned into an exciting match. The Spanish champion and triple world champion bridged back after a 12-2 gap in seven innings when he scored a 7 (15-15), took the lead by a strong surge (38-27), but then, suddenly, Martinez timed his attack perfectly in the finishing straight. ,,I already thought that I had lost the match'', he explained later. ,,They only thing I wanted was to grab every chance to reduce the backlog.'' That chance, he got in the 26th inning: Martinez started a magnificent run and only stopped at 13! when he came to the finish line: 40-38.
Dani Sánchez equalized with two, so the shoot-outs had to decide over the tournament win. Martinez scored twice from the break, Sánchez only scored from the spots and missed his second point by a kiss.
David Zapata, best player in the tournament so far, defeated another Spanish great name, Javier Palazón. The match for the semi-finals was in balance until 13-13, 30-29 and 35-35, then, with the pressure on every shot, Zapata scored the winning points in the 31th inning: 40-37.
Martinez had a better start in the final against Zapata and ran out to 15-2 after a run of seven. Martinez was 29-19 ahead after twenty innings, Zapata fought back to 35-35, but saw Martinez finish at 40-36 in 29 innings.
David Martinez, who still lives at home with his parents, had planned some great international World Cups this year, in Porto, next week, Guri, La Baule and Hurghada.
The final ranking:
1 David Martinez 1.456-12
2 David Zapata 1.584-7
3 Dani Sänchez 1.584-7
4 Javier Palazón 1.481-10
5 Armando Moreno 1.189-6
6 Jose Maria Mas 1.481-7
7 Jésus Jiménez 1.481-7
8 Raul Cuenca 0.991-7
9 Rubén Legazpi 1.404-7
10 Esteve Mata 1.126-10
11 Carlos Crespo 1.595-6
12 Alfonso Legazpi 1.133-6.
The four Spanish players for the final day: David Martinez, David Zapata, Dani Sánchez and Javier Palazón