Ivo Aarts (NED) secured a spot for him in the top 64 players of the Dynamic Billiards European Open by creaming Damianos Giallourakis (GRE) with 9:6.
Aarts and Giallourakis had both lost their respective first match to David Alcaide (ESP) who was the seeded player in the group. So the match turned out to be a "do or die" for the two contestants. From the very beginning, Aarts dominated the match and left no doubts to his opponent that he was ready for the fight. He took a quick 4:1 and 6:3 lead over Giallourakis. He even managed to get to 8:3 and everything looked like smooth sailing for the young Dutch. But then Giallourakis struck back and closed the gap a bit. At a score of 8:6 for Aarts, he made the final point he needed to make it to tomorrow's competition and sent his opponent home.
Huidji See (NED), the current World 10-ball Champion, won his match over Denis Grabe (EST) with 9:7. However, since all three players in that group have won one match, the decision had to come through the secondary scores. Denis Grabe had the best quota so he was through. See and Mark Gray (GBR) had the same quota so the direct match between the two had to come into account. Since Gray defeated See, he qualified for the next stage while See is on his way home.
The event is hosted by the European Governing Body for Pool, the European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) and organized by International Billiard Promotion (IBP). For further information and reference please go to the federation website www.europeanopenonline.eu , follow us on twitter @EPBF_News or contact our press office.