"The Tornado" from Malta, Tony Drago, won 9:6 over current World 9-Ball Champion Niels "The Terminator" Feijen (NED) at the Dynamic Billard Dutch Open.
The match started out quite even. Feijen seemed to struggle with his break a bit while Drago missed a few easy shots in the early stage of the match. However, after eight racks the score was wide at 4:4 between the two contestants. Then Drago managed to get a slight advantage over Feijen, sneaking away with a two point lead at 6:4. Then Feijen took a time-out. When he returned, things did not get better for him. Drago even took two more racks to get on the hill with 8:4. It looked like everything was said and done already when Feijen got a second life because of careless play by Drago. The Maltese played some bad safety attempts and suddenly Feijen was up his neck again with 6:8, having his own break coming up. But again his break did not work for him. He had no ball down and an open table for Drago which "The Tornado" used to clear the table and win the match with 9:6. Feijen has another chance on the loser’s side while Drago advances to the second winner’s round.
Another remarkable match was the encounter between Tomasz Kaplan (POL) and Nikos Ekonomopoulos (GRE). The Greek was leading 7:5 when he played two bad mistakes in the next two consecutive racks. That brought Kaplan back with 7:7. The next two racks were run outs which made the match a hill-hill affair at 8:8. There, Ekonomopoulos had the better nerves and closed the book on Kaplan with 9:8 to achieve a lucky victory over the Polish.
In his first Euro-Tour appearance, former World 9-Ball Champion Alex Pagulayan (CAN) defeated Sebastian Beuel (LUX) clearly with 9:4 after a 0:2 deficit in the beginning of the match.
More interesting results include
Stephan Cohen (FRA) 9 Can Salim-Giasar (GER) 6
Konstantin Stepanov (RUS) 9 Christoph Marien (BEL) 7
Albin Ouschan (AUT) 9 Bart Urselmann (NED) 2
Marcus Chamat (SWE) 9 Pawel Zalewski (POL) 2
Mario He (AUT) 9 Steve Leisen (LUX) 1
Daryl Peach (GBR) 9 Jelle Kijlstra (NED) 3
Oliver Ortmann (GER) 9 Nick Malai (GRE) 4
Most favored players have made their way through the first winner’s round today.
The tournament will continue tomorrow morning at 09:00 CET.
Three out of 11 tables can be watched LIVE throughout the event on www.kozoom.com. The event will be hosted by the European Pocket Billiard Federation EPBF and organized by International Billiard Promotion, IBP. For further information, please check the event website at www.eurotouronline.com or contact the EPBF press office at press@epbf.com
