David Alcaide (Foto: EPBF/AMM)
Friday, 02 December 2011: In a classic encounter between two players who know each other's game very well, David Alcaide (ESP) finished Fabio Petroni (ITA) with a 9-4 scoreline.
The match started with both players playing not on their A-game, as they made unnecessary mistakes and benefitted from each other's errors. In the 5th rack, when the score was tied at 2-2, things changed for Alcaide. He played better and Petroni got really unlucky with some shots and positions. Though Petroni was trying hard to satisfy the expectations of his home crowd, Alcaide took rack after rack off Petroni and got into a comfortable 6-2 lead. In the 9th rack, Petroni made a terrible mistake on the 4-ball and missed it after having played tougher shots before. Alcaide did not reject that gift and made the score 7-2 in his favor. The next rack was determined by safety shots. It was again Petroni to make the first mistake, giving a chance to Alcaide to run out which the Spaniard did, climbing on the hill with an 8-2 lead over Petroni. The next two racks were taken by Petroni who seemed to struggle back and keep himself in the game. In the 13th rack, Petroni broke the balls and the 9-ball was hanging over the corner pocket, but he did not have a shot at the 2- ball which was the lowest numbered ball on the table. He played a good safety shot, but Alcaide answered that by kissing into the 2-ball and pocketing the 9-ball with the cue ball. That was the 9-4 victory for Alcaide over Petroni. "I think Fabio and I have not played well in this match", said Alcaide after the match, "I have missed too many balls and played bad positions. Normally, I would have lost that match but I was lucky here to beat Fabio. The balls did not roll in his favor".
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