THERE WERE WINS for Poland’s Wojciech Szewczyk and Jasmin Ouschan (Austria) as the PREDATOR TURKISH Open played out on Sunday night in Antalya. 8-ball was the game and Szewczyk defeated countryman Radoslaw Babica to claim his first-ever Euro Tour title. For Ouschan it was title number 22 and she did it the hard way, defeating unsung German Miriam Steiner by 7-5.
For Szewczyk, it was the culmination of a long Euro Tour journey which began in the late 00s. Having reached the final on two previous occasions– in 2012 and 2025 – it was something of a monkey on his back, given his outstanding accomplishments within the game.
That was banished though, as his chance came this week and he led 4-1 and 7-2 before a spirited comeback from Babica reduced arrears to 8-6 before Szewczyk, with two breaks in hand, got the job done for a 9-6 victory. Szewczyk was at the end of a long trip which started in mid-February in Las Vegas and took in the Predator Pro Billiard Series, the Predator European Pool Championships and finally the Euro Tour.
He said, “I’m over the moon really! I really wanted to win this one. We changed to 8-ball which has always been a really strong game of mine so I thought maybe I will have a chance here and I’m just very happy with the final and the way I played. Although there was a lot of pressure, I felt considerably relaxed and I think I played some good pool, Radek as well, I’m still very fresh after the final but it’s pretty emotional for me.
“He was closing the gap with one bad break of mine and then his two breaks and runs and I knew I had two breaks left and I really wanted to hit them good at 8-6 because if I didn’t, I would have been left with only one break. It was closer than it looked, it’s a very tricky format with two breaks each because the score doesn’t always reflect the situation and I never felt secure in that match. I know Radoslaw is a fighter and can always come back so it was all up to me as there was no chance that he would give it for free.
“I’m super sure my family are proud of me, I’m also proud of myself and I can’t wait to see them again and give them a huge, huge hug; I think I’m not going to let them go for 24 hours. Maybe this will make winning a second one a little easier since the pressure has gone now but I’m going to enjoy what I achieved today,” concluded Szewczyk.
For Ouschan, she proved that a great champion gets the job done whatever the circumstances. She freely admitted to being fatigued due to a heavy travel schedule but was still able to deliver the goods in a championship setting.
Her opponent, Miriam Steiner, was very much an unknown quantity, having generally kept out of international competition but came to the fore with a gold medal win in the two-women teams event at the European Championships. She carried that form into the Euro Tour as she blasted her way in the final match before being outsmarted by Ouschan. The Austrian reached the hill at 6-1 but Steiner chipped away at her lead to draw back to 6-5 before Ouschan shut the door.
She said, “Honestly, I’ve no idea how I got through it. The last couple of days were really draining and I could really tell that after four-and-a-half weeks on tour in tournament mode I’m running out of fuel. When you are in tension for that time, there comes a point when you can’t keep up the tension and then you make errors.
“So I thought, fight from one match to the next and see what happens and now I’m here and I have another title on my list and I’m so happy about and glad that it all worked out for me and I had the rolls at the right times.
“Sometimes it’s your job to fight through the matches when it’s not going your way and I definitely had my share of errors over the past days and I was getting frustrated at some point with my game as I know I can play better but, in the end, you have to pot that 8-ball and you have to finish those racks and I guess that’s what I did.
“I started playing really well running out a lot of racks but with that score you’re thinking, OK, that’s going well and I didn’t do many errors then, I just had dry breaks and she kept running out and I thought this is going to get exciting. She was playing well and running racks and it could have been a hill-hill but she made a mistake at the end and I could take advantage of that,” she added.
Tables 1, 2 and 3 at the Predator Turkish Opens were streamed live on YouTube, via the Pro Billiard TV channel - https://www.youtube.com/@ProBilliardTV Follow all Predator Pro Billiard Series events on the same platform.
For all results, live scoring and draw, visit www.epbf.com/tournaments/european-championships/
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