ATHENS –20-year-old Marcos Morales, one of the many great talents in Spanish billiards, has won the final of the Longoni Next Gen in Athens. With his victory over the one-year-younger Spaniard Toni Garcia (35-25 in 31), Morales became the first winner of a Longoni event in the Greek capital. The event was organized by the CEB and the Greek federation. Marcos Morales was one of three Spaniards in the field of four final players. Amir Ibraimov represented Germany on the podium. The Spanish winner was born in Madrid and is one of the young players following the internal training program at Los Alcazares on the Spanish east coast. Around this time last year, at the age of 19, Marcos Morales became European Under-25 champion by defeating Greek Dimitrios Seleventas in the final of a tournament that also featured Amir Ibraimov, Seymen Ozbas, and Denizcan Akkoca, among others. Morales has also already won a CEB Longoni tournament.
This year's tournament in Arhene ended with three Spaniards competing in the top four. Morales faced the diminutive, one-year-younger Toni Garcia in the final, after having defeated Amir Ibraimov 35-31 in 23 innings in the semi-final. In the final, Morales held the lead for almost the entire match after a run of eight and, after leading 30-22, raced to the finish with a 35-25 victory in 31 innings. "The match against Amir was very tough because he is a very strong player and kept pace in the score for a very long time," Marcos said an hour after the final. "I also beat him last year in Belgium during a Longoni tournament."
Marcos Morales has been studying and living in Los Alcazares since he was 15 years old. His billiards instructor is José Carrasco, and he learns a lot from David Zapata when the professional player is in Spain between tournaments in South Korea. There are five other young players living in the Spanish academy.
The next peaks for Morales include the senior tournaments. But first, the European Junior Championship in Greece in August and the Junior World Championship. "My time in the Under-21 juniors ended here. The transition will be very tough. I want to improve myself even more to a good level so I can play against the best players."
In his life outside of billiards, Marcos Morales is pursuing an economics degree: business administration.
The Longoni winner started his preliminary rounds against Mirko Rossino, Kaan Demir, and Konstantinos Demiris with 6 points and 1.102. This was followed by the round of 16 against Gilano Vloedmans (35-21 in 23), the quarter-final against Tangui Duriez (35-24 in 24), the semi-final against Amir Ibraimov (35-31 in 23), and finally the final against Toni Garcia.
The final standings
1 Marcos Morales 14-1.279-8
2 Toni Garcia 12-1.178-10
3 Amir Ibraimov 10-1.571-11
3 Arturo Zotov 10-0.925-8
5 Tangui Duriez 8-0.943-7
6 Bruno Martinez 7-0.932-7
7 Mio Svensson 6-0.802-6
8 Toon Bollansee 8-0.847-8
