AARHUS - The cry of Spaniard Marcos Morales rang through the hall with a handful of spectators still in the stands. The only Spanish player still in the tournament won his match at the European Under-25 championships against one of the Turkish contenders, Seymen Ozbas, 40-39 and is in the semi-finals together with two Germans, one with Turkish roots, the other from Macedonia: Aygün Cin and Amir Ibraimov. The fourth finalist is Greek Dimitrios Seleventas. That was the outcome of a quarter final evening at the billiard arena in Aarhus, where other contenders such as Denizcan Akkoca, Allesio D'Agata, Maxime Panaia have been eliminated.
Two Germans, of whom 16-year-old Amir Ibraimov is of course the most known, his father hailing from Macedonia and together with his brother already successful in younger years. Aygün Cin is the revelation of this Europeans. He is 24, son of Turkish artistic champion Baris Cin, who now lives in Hanover. Aygün Cin eliminated Greek Georgios Tsokantas on Saturday night, also in a thrilling fight 40-37 in 40 innings.
Dimitrios Seleventas, who started with 2,000 on average in the preliminaries but then played a mediocre game in the first knockouts, recovered in the quarter-finals. In those, the Greek youngster won his match against Denizcan Akkoca, the feared Turkish champion, 40-31 in 30. Amir Ibraimov (16), the youngest of the finalists, pulled off another trick by keeping Alessio D'Agata out of the finals in his last tournament under 25. That too was a great fight, which Ibraimov won 40-39 in 34 innings.
Report from round with the best 16:
What a difference for Dimitrios Seleventas between the preliminary rounds and his first appearance in the knockouts. The Greek led the entire field of 32 players with 2,000 on average, but had a poor start in the main draw. There, Seleventas needed 51 innings for a win against Swede Mio Svensson: 40-30. Those eight games in the first knockouts were to 40 points, the level indicated that a big tension came over the players.
German Aygün Cin, who is not among the best known players in this company, was even the best with a win over Maxime Panaia: 40-22 in 29 innings. The Frenchman was very disappointed, as in his last tournament under 25, the former champion could not impress.
Two Dutchmen and two Frenchmen disappeared from the tournament in this round. Luca Philipoom played an excellent match against world champion Seymen Ozbas, took a lead, but was felled by a final run in the end: 40-34 in 35 innings. The other Dutchman, Joris van ‘t Zelfden, also encountered such a final sprint from his opponent: Marcos Morales finished with 7: 40-30 in 34.
French brothers Nathan and Tangui Duriez had to bow to Denizcan Akkoca and Alessio D'Agata. Nathan lost narrowly to the Italian 40-29 in 30, Tangui was eliminated by Akkoca 40-33 in 36.
The second Spaniard, Sergio Martinez, came up short against Greek Georgios Tsokantas 40-19 in 32, meaning that two Greeks, two Germans, two Turks, one Spaniard and one Italian remained for the last eight. That field was thinned to four semi-finalists late in the evening.
The semi-finals on Sunday:
10.30: Ibraimov-Seleventas
13.00: Morales-Cin
Final at 17.00, all live on Kozoom.
Spaniard Marcos Morales