Ralf Souquet
Following a lengthy day’s play at the Dynamic Billard Treviso Open at the BHR Treviso Hotel in the northern Italian town, some of the field has been whittled down after upwards of 15 hours of intense play. Of a starting line-up of 204 players, 70 were eliminated from the competition, leaving 134 left to battle on day two, Sunday.
Wojciech Szewczyk, hot off a crowning victory at the recent World 10 Ball Championship, was one of the few big names to succumb in their opening match. He lost out 9-1 to a fired-up Elliot Sanderson, one of the five British players in the field. The Polish star recovered though, beating Sweden’s Kai Kraft by a similar scoreline to keep his hopes alive.
Germany’s Ralf Souquet, a recent European Championship gold medallist, fell to Jonas Souto, the young Spaniard and former WPA World Junior Champion. 9-7 was the scoreline. Like Szewczyk, Souquet followed it up with a 9-2 victory over Antonio Colucci (Italy).
Another German veteran, Oliver Ortmann, made a welcome return to the Euro Tour. A previous winner on 14 occasions, Ortmann went down in a hill-hill opening match at the hands of Admir Muho (Albania). However, he bounced back with a confident 9-1 win over Italian Valerio Castellano to take his place in Sunday’s line-up.
Elsewhere, the youngest competitor in the event, 12-year-old Maks Benko (Slovenia) survived a a great day to stay alive in the event. After losing his first match, he enjoyed a fine 9-2 win over France’s Stephane Herman to set up a game against highly experienced Finn, Petri Makkonen, on Sunday. Despite his age, the youngster looks a marvellous prospect for the future as he exuded confidence and exhibited some quality shot-making.
The tournament continues at 9.00 on Sunday morning with the remainder of the Losers Round 2 matches as well as Losers Round 3 and Winners’ Round 2 games. The tournament concludes on Monday evening with the televised final stages.
All Euro Tour tournaments are 9-ball and players compete in a double-elimination format, playing down to the last 32 competitors, and
then single elimination until the finish. All matches are races to 9 racks with alternate break.
All the matches can be viewed live at www.kozoom.com
Results, live scoring and draw are available at www.epbf.com
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