Alpina Hotel, St Johann im Pongau, Austria
THE CARRINHO WOMEN’S OPEN started today in St Johann as Predator Pro Billiard Series continued into day two. There was just one round of matches as the remainder of the field are in action on Thursday. Also up and running was the Predator Mixed Doubles which saw the opening round of 16 matches complete.
Sweden’s Linnea Hjalmarstrom opened her account with a tidy 4-2, 4-1 victory over Yvonne Ullmann-Hybler to take her place in Winners’ Round 1. Having been a dominant force in European youth pool, Hjalmarstrom is now fully enmeshed in the women’s game and looking to go places.
She said, “The game felt good I felt confident on the table so it does settle me down for sure. You always want to have a good start and I felt I did in that match so for sure the nerves are settled now. I felt a huge amount of pressure in the juniors to always win and if I didn’t win people asked me what happened but here it’s not the case for now, but I hope it to be in the future, but I don’t feel the same amount of pressure, I feel more opportunities.”
Next up for Linnea is the formidable Kristina Tkach; “I did play her in December in Florida in the Kamui World 9-Ball Championship. I lost but I felt I can touch her for sure; she’s just a player like me and we’re all human so I’m going to approach it like any other match – do my best, be wise, take my time and of course play as good as I can. “
A strong European contender this week is Germany’s Ina Kaplan who got her campaign off to a winning start, defeating Cindy Keller (SUI) 4-0, 4-1.
She said, “It’s always nice to have the first win. I didn’t know how you play on the tables but I played really good, and felt comfortable. I really like the competition here and the international players who come here and of course I want to prepare for the 10-ball World Championship in Rome and so this is a really good opportunity for me.”
Kaplan has tasted success in this venue before on Euro Tour duties; “I had a big, big loss here too at the European Championships but I won here before and most of the time I get really good results so I’m feeling really good.”
There are three action-packed tournaments this week and the Predator Mixed Doubles got underway with 32 pairs battling it out for the $40,000 top prize from the $100,000 prize-fund. It’s double-elimination all the way down to the quarter-finals and the first round of 16 matches completed today.
An early winning pair were Jayson Shaw and Savannah Easton who enjoyed a comfortable win over Jolien Schuurman and Blake Burnard.
Shaw said, “Chemistry is massive. If you’re not on the same page it could be a disaster. Luckily enough, we’ve played before in Jacksonville. We knew we were a good pairing but the chemistry is massive.
“It’s tough just to play one event with a short race but with them bringing the doubles in and the ladies’ event at the same time, it really helps the event grow. All the top pro players enjoy that there’s two events to play and if you get knocked out early you’ve still got the doubles to play in.”
Commented Easton’ “Luckily enough here you can feel at peace because when you look around at the scenery you can just sit outside if you’re nervous about you match. It is a little harder to focus with that vacation vibe – that’s how I found Bali – but it’s a beautiful venue and fun to play here.”
One of the strongest pairings is Jasmin and Albin Ouschan, who got their campaign off to a winning start with a solid win over Marion Jude and Alex Montpelier. Having played pool in each other’s company since childhood, it’s safe to say that there were no knowledge gaps in each other’s games and so it proved.
Commented Jasmin, “I’ve known him since forever, I’ve seen him play since forever so we both know when to talk to each other and when to leave each other alone. He doesn’t need any instructions, right? And when you’re playing with a shot clock, you need to focus on your own game but our style fits pretty well. Everybody wants that start so we’re happy with that.”
Albin added, “You saw other couples winning the event and they’ve probably never talked to each other before. If you look at Josh and Pia, I think they’ve won three times already so I think it helps to know the game of your partner but with a shot clock you never know what you get especially with the break. We did quite good so far and played a good match,” he added.
The Billard Beckmann Men’s Open continued with just a single round of play and Sanjin Pehlivanovic lived to fight another day as he defeated the always-dangerous Petri Makkonen in a three setter. The Bosnian sharp-shooter had suffered defeat at the hands of Mustafa Alnar in his opening match but dug in to advance.
He said, “It’s always tough to play against Petri but this match we both made some mistakes and it’s really tough to get in a rhythm without a break. It’s a close match and you can expect almost anything but hopefully in the next match my break works.
“Yesterday I’ve made a few mistakes, I was struggling with the speed of the table and found it a bit bouncy but also, I didn’t make one break in the whole match. I wouldn’t play this sport if I wasn’t expecting to win but it’s a long road, match by match, ball by ball. I always say that but that’s how it is. You can lose in the first round and win the tournament. You never know, just stay positive!
Another player to grapple his way through the losers side is Jonas Souto who made amends for his shoot-out loss to Kristian Mrva yesterday with a 2-0 victory over Mariusz Gnitecki (Poland). He can now look forward to Lazar Kostic (SRB) on Thursday morning.
He said, “You have a little bit of extra pressure because if you lose, you’re out, but I think you have to focus on the game, you have to focus on the format because sometimes it’s tough, and you can never be relaxed.
“I first came her in my second youth European Championship and it was really good. This place is unbelievable, it’s so beautiful. I came with my family, I was a kid and you enjoy things more when you’re a kid but I have good good feelings about this place.”
On Thursday at 10.00, play resumes with the Losers’ Round 2 of the Billard Beckman Open. After that the Carrinho Women’s Open continues with Winners Round 1, and the day’s play is concluded with two more rounds of the Predator Mixed Doubles. The live stream for Tables 1, 2 and 3 can be found on YouTube, via the Pro Billiard TV channel – https://www.youtube.com/@ProBilliardTV
For all results, live scoring and draw visit the events’ homepage https://probilliardseries.com/event/2026-austria/
Predator Pro Billiard Series Equipment
- Predator ARC 9-Foot Pool Table
- Predator Arcos II Pool Balls
- Predator Aerorack Billiard Triangle
- Predator x Simonis Cloth
Predator Pro Billiard Series Sponsors
- Predator Group
- Little Monster
- Kamui Brand
- Box Billiards
- Yalin
- Iwan Simonis
- Aramith
- Billard Beckmann
- Carrinho
- VenBilliards