THERE WAS A full day of action in Spain as the Little Monster Women’s International Open was joined by the Little Monster Mixed Doubles Open. The women’s event has now played down to the quarter-final stages and will resume tomorrow at 16.00. The 32-team mixed doubles tournament saw three rounds completed and reconvenes at 10.00.
One player still going in both is Germany’s Pia Filler. She’s on the one-loss side alongside Dennis Grabe in the Mixed Doubles Open and into the last eight in the women’s event. She came through on the winners’ side with wins over Liu Shasha (CHN) and Sofia Mast (USA), and then defeated countrywoman Yvonne Ullmann Hybler 2-0 to reach the final eight.
She said, “It went pretty quick, I got nice layouts and was running almost every rack and I was playing very good and I made three or four break and runs. Obviously, there’s always a little bit of luck on the break but it went my way this time. I played well and I can’t wait for tomorrow.
“My tournament started by playing one of the best women on the planet in Liu Shasha, so I’m into the tournament and I’m ready to take on any opponent. It was a rough day as I played three matches back-to-back, I think it was 3.00, 5.00 and 7.30 so I never had a five-minute break. That can be good or can be bad but I just try to enjoy playing and have fun,” she added.
One strong pairing who had mixed fortunes were Eklent Kaci and Wei Tzu-Chien. They won their opener, defeating Francisco Sanchez Ruiz and Mayte Ropero, before coming undone in the next round as they lost to Daniel Maciol and Chen Chia-Hua.
Commented Kaci, “We enjoyed playing, we played pretty good and we understand each other we actually get along really well. I know she plays pretty well, and gets in positions and knows how to check the table and I like the way she shoots. If you’re struggling with your partner, you’ll get scared of playing your shot and that’s not the best combination.”
Wei added, “Some players are different types of players – they can be very fast or pot every ball but I like his style more and I feel more like this style and we match together quite well.”
Another strong pairing, with two wins from two was Emil Andre Gangflot (Norway) and Bojana Sarac of Serbia. Yet to drop a set, the dynamic duo have made their way into the winners’ qualification bracket.
Commented Gangflot, “We believe in ourselves and we’re playing good. We’ve never played together before but it feels so natural. We’re both really calm and have similar playing styles and we can definitely beat anyone here.”
Sarac added, “I think chemistry is very important as you can’t really win if you have different kind of thinking and different kind of rhythm and stuff and I think we’re doing well so it’s important.”
The 87-player Little Monster Men’s International Open commences on Thursday with the opening round of games. The Little Monster Women’s International Open is part of a full schedule of events under the Predator Pro Billiards Series banner running until 7th December. It includes both Men’s International Open and Mixed Double’s Open, the Predator WPA Junior World Championships, and finally both open and women’s events on the Predator Euro Tour.
Play continues on Thursday at 10.00 and streaming of Tables 1 and 2 for all events can be found on YouTube, via the Pro Billiard TV channel - https://www.youtube.com/@
For all results, live scoring and draw visit the events’ homepage https://