THE WOMEN’S EVENT commenced today at the Predator Luxembourg Open as 54 players took to the tables in the second stop of the year on the Predator Euro Tour series. Taking place at the GridX complex in Wickrange in the south-west corner of the country, the men’s and women’s tournaments play out to a conclusion on Sunday evening .
The Predator Luxembourg Women’s Open features a super-strong field with just #1 ranked player Jasmin Ouschan absent from the proceedings. One player looking to make a significant move up the rankings is Sweden’s Linnea Hjalmarstrom, who went on something of a tear-up, winning her three matches today to qualify for the last 16, conceding just two racks in the process.
The Swede skipped the last Euro Tour in Antalya but instead won a straight pool gold medal at the concurrent Predator European Championships.
She said, “I feel I’m playing well. I prepared well and I’m getting the results I want so I feel good. It’s a great game to measure skill, straight pool, so to win that one is extra special for me but I know that results in the past don’t matter, it’s only what you do now.
“I want to play well and feel good on the table, that’s my only goal but usually if I feel good and play well, I will get a good result so it goes hand-in-hand. I play every day, sometimes twice a day but I try to do seven days a week and work on my weaknesses, work on my technique, fine tuning a couple of details and now for this tournament, preparing with the break which is a great factor in succeeding or not,” she added.
Monika Zabek (Poland) also played well in Turkey where she had a career-best Euro Tour finish, reaching the semi-finals, and is looking to build on that performance here in Luxembourg. With three wins from three, she certainly did that, defeating Lynn Pijpers, Yvonne Ullmann-Hybler and Christine Steinlage in succession.
She said ”I played good, I would say. I struggled with the first two matches in the beginning and then I pulled it off so I’m happy with the result. Antalya definitely giving me big confidence; it changed something in my approach to the match and this time, I’m aiming for the same or even more, maybe the final!”
The men’s Winner’s Qualification round has been set at the Predator Luxembourg Open and those 32 return on Saturday morning at 11.00 to scrap it out for a spot in the single-elimination showdown.
Claiming his maiden Euro Tour title last time out at the Predator Turkish Open in Antalya was Wojciech Szewczyk. The classy Pole currently holds the No.1 spot on three major rankings – the WPA World Rankings, the Predator Euro Tour Rankings and the Polish National Rankings.
He said “I’m actually surprised by how much satisfaction it gives me. I’m very proud of it. I didn’t know that it would mean so much to me before it happened. It sounds surreal to be first in all of the rankings since it’s separate tournaments. You’ve got to follow them all and it shows that I was pretty consistent especially the World No.1 but also the coincidence that I’m the No.1 everywhere makes me feel quite accomplished. I’ve already won national, European and World titles. Of course, there’s so much more to win but it feel like it adds to my resume very nicely and I’m very proud of it.”
Szewczyk has won two from two here at GridX, defeating Alex Montpelier (France) 7-3 yesterday and then coming through against Mika Van Berkel by a similar scoreline on Friday. He will face Mustafa Alnar for a place in the straight knock-out last 32.
Another player through to Saturday with two wins is perennial Euro Tour Champion Joshua Filler. After one of his self-described ‘worst performances’ yesterday, narrowly beating Adam Stankiewicz, the German ace picked up the pace today as he defeated Daniel Maciol 7-5.
Commented Filler, “I did play better. I had a good lead in the beginning of 5-0 and it give me a little bit of confidence. But still I made a few errors and he just punished me as hard as he could so I felt a bit of pressure towards the end because I knew that if I didn’t get two of my breaks as a ‘W’, he’s going to break at hill-hill. So the break system makes it more tricky even if you’re up.
“Other than that, I was just happy to beat Daniel because he’s one of the toughest players in the field and playing him in the second match is always hard. I feel like when you play someone and you know you have to play your best, it just pushes you harder so that’s what I felt today and my game was better. Not my best but good enough. I’m still in and still have two lives left and I’ll just try to force my A game out,” he added.
Play resumes tomorrow at 9.00 in the men’s event with Losers Round 4, followed by Winner’s Qualification.
Tables 1 and 2 at the Predator Luxembourg Opens will be streamed throughout on YouTube, via the Pro Billiard TV channel - https://www.youtube.com/@ProBilliardTV
For all results, live scoring and draw, visit www.epbf.com
EPBF Sponsors
▸ Predator Group
▸ Iwan Simonis Billiard Cloth
▸ Aramith Billiard Balls
▸ Longoni Cues
▸ Kamui Brand