OLIVER SZOLNOKI AND Zhang Mu-Yan are the LITTLE MONSTER Mixed Doubles champions after a pitch-perfect performance to take the honours in a straight-sets victory over Marco Teutscher (Netherlands) and Wang Wan-Ling of Chinese Taipei. After the semi-final shoot-out drama, it was plain sailing for the Hungarian/Chinese duo as they ran out comfortable winners by 4-2 and 4-0.
Teutscher and Wang couldn’t conjure up the heroics of the previous day as the match drifted away from them from the mid-point of the opening set. Some uncharacteristic misses handed their opponents great opportunities and they didn’t shy away from converting them. Szolnoki and Zhang looked as if they had been playing together for years, but they agreed to pair up after meeting at a heyball event in China and then enjoyed just a brief practice session, pre-tournament.
Szolnoki was thrilled with the win and underlined Zhang’s peerless play throughout. “I’m extremely happy especially because I was knocked out in the last 16 in the men’s event so this was my last chance to get a title here. I’m very happy that we managed to do it and Mu-Yan didn’t travel all the way from China to go home without a win.
“I’m speechless at the way Zhang plays. There are so many shots that she pockets with ease that I don’t even think about going for. I’m thinking we should play safe but she just looks at me, smiles and she’s OK, I’ll go for it. In the first matches, when I didn’t know her so well, I was trying to convince her to play safety but after seeing some of her pots, I thought, OK, I’ll just sit down and watch and it worked out very well!
“It's a very good start for our mixed doubles career and I hope we can play a lot more events in the future because it really is a pleasure to play alongside her,” he concluded. The winning pair split $40,000 between them.
The Little Monster Men’s International Open is now at the semi-finals. The two matches go at 17.00 on Monday and from a very strong line-up of 87 players, the last four pairings are fixed. Home hopes are resting on the shoulders of Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz as he faces quality Kuwaiti star Bader Al Awadhi. The other side of the draw will see Dennis Grabe (EST) try and lift his second Predator Pro Billiard Series title of the year, but he’ll have to get past Poland’s outstanding Daniel Maciol.
The three divisions of the Predator WPA Junior World Championships are down to the semi-finals and the battle for gold and World Champion status will be determined on Monday at 10.00 with the last four and then Tuesday at midday with the finals.
In the Girls, Savannah Easton (USA) will be hoping to improve on her silver medal of 2024 as she faces Sweden’s Linnea Hjalmarström, while last year’s bronze medallist, Wang Ming-Ling (TPE) goes up against the USA’s Jordan Helfery.
The Under 17’s final four is all European and Revo Maimre of Estonia is on track to repeat his triumph of last year as he faces Jakub Chrobot (Poland). Chrobot, a bronze winner last year will have something to say about that. The other semi-final features talented Slovenian Maks Benko against Poland’s Wiktor Kaczmarek.
Three of the four semi-finalists in the Under 19s finished on the podium last time around. Walter Laikre (SWE) a runner-up in the younger age category in 2024, faces Felix Vogel of Germany, who claimed a bronze. In the second semi-final, 2024 bronze-winner Aoi Kanazawa (JPN) faces Eddie Vonderau (USA).
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