Team Austria and Team Poland
THERE WAS A PACKED night of action in St Johann im Pongau as the 2023 Longoni 9 Ball League saw six matches take place and the destination of the 12 competing teams become a little clearer. There were two matches postponed from the opening night back in February with Germany and Norway competing twice tonight in order to catch up.
The format is scotch doubles with the matches a race to seven. The event is divided into four groups of three countries with the competing players the highest ranked pair on the Euro Tour rankings immediately prior to evening’s play.
In Group A, defending champions Poland ensured their passage into the semi-finals with a 7-2 victory over Austria. Wiktor Zielinski and Wojciech Szewczyk were ever-presents last year on their route to the title and with a win over Turkish North Cyprus in the opening round of matches, they can’t now be caught and make the last four for the second successive year.
With a plethora of Polish talent inhabiting the upper echelons of the rankings, Szewczyk and Zielinski’s main goal now will be to maintain those top two spots in readiness for the semi-finals in the autumn.
Estonia kept their hopes alive in Group B with a hard-fought 7-6 win over the Czech Republic, having lost to Spain in the opening set of matches. The Estonians – tonight represented by Karl Gnadeberg and Nils Luhavee – need the Czechs to beat Spain in the remaining group match and then take their chances in the play-offs.
Norway had a wonderful evening although not in the best circumstances as they defeated Switzerland 7-6 in a thriller after Bosnia and Herzegovina failed to appear for their opening match and handed the spoils to Norway on a forfeit. That meant two wins from two for the Norwegian pair of veteran Mats Schjetne and youngster Emil-Andre Gangflot which is enough to see them into the semi-finals from Group C.
Group D saw Germany play out two contrasting matches with two very different teams and leave everything to play for going onto the final match. Firstly, Tobias Bongers and Luca Menn were well beaten by the Dutch pair of Niels Feijen and Marc Bijsterbosch and then Joshua Filler and Ralf Souquet enjoyed a 7-3 win over the Hungarian pair of Oliver Szolnoki and Atilla Bezdan. That means that the Netherlands can qualify with a win over Hungary but if the match goes the other way, all three teams will enter a play-off.
Commented Ralf Souquet, “It’s actually been a while since I’ve played with Joshua but it’s always nice to play with him as he’s such a great player and shot-maker. You just have to leave him a ball that he can see but it adds extra pressure on his partner because you don’t want to disappoint him as he hardly ever misses. On the other hand, it’s nice to have such a weapon on your team. If we want to have a chance to advance to the next round, then we need Hungary to beat the Netherlands but if the Netherlands play the way they did today, then they’re going to be tough to beat.”
The third round of matches are scheduled for Friday 26th May in Tampere, Finland.
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