THERE WAS A dream ending to the LITTLE MONSTER Men’s International Open as Spain’s Francisco Sanchez Ruiz swept to the title, defeating Dennis Grabe (EST) two-sets-to-zero. Cheered on by a raucous crowd in Gandia, in the south-east part of Spain from where he originates, Sanchez-Ruiz powered through the match winning 4-2, 4-3. Grabe came to play but was edged out despite giving an impressive performance himself.
Commented Francisco, “Amazing! To be honest, those fans helped me a lot. I had all the crowd with me and I’m really happy, it was a great week for me. I hadn’t played such a big event in Spain and I’m around the world playing in everything so it’s special winning this event in my home. It’s going to be the last event for me till the end of the year so time to take some rest.”
Sanchez Ruiz put paid to the hopes of players of the quality of Mario He, Oliver Szolnoki and Wojciech Szewczyk on his route to the final and seemed destined for the win given the location and battery of enthusiastic supporters willing his every shot.
The final itself was high-quality with little in the way of errors as both players played near their best. In the end it was small margins which determined the outcome, but both players could be proud of their achievements.
Sanchez-Ruiz added, “I played very good through the tournament. I didn’t miss many balls this week but I played very smart because it’s a short race and every rack counts. I just tried to play my best every single round and it was a great week for me here. I can’t wait to celebrate with the people here – it’s going to be a very long night!”
For Grabe, it wasn’t the result he was after but on reflection, he was very happy with his efforts in Gandia.
He said, “I played quite good in the final. The second set I didn’t make any mistakes and I just made one in the first set but Fran played really well so I think he deserves to win. Obviously, I want to win the final but still a good week for me. I have to take the positives, second place in such a tough field is always a good result.
“2025 has been the best year in my career and I’m looking forward to see what the future brings and I hope I can win many more titles. I beat many good players here and played a lot of matches so I’m a little bit tired so a few days rest and then keep going again on the Euro Tour,” he concluded.
After a day off, pool resumes on Thursday with the Predator Spanish Open, both open and women’s divisions. Running through till Sunday 7th December, there will be streaming of Tables 1 and 2 throughout at the YouTube home of the Pro Billard Series https://www.youtube.
For all results, live scoring and draw visit the events’ homepage https://www.epbf.com/
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