Stephan Cohen (left) and Ralf Souquet
In a dramatic winner’s round 1 match at the Dynamic Billard Austrian Open in Alpina Wellness & Sports Hotel, St. Johann i.Pg., Austria, between the two grandmasters Ralf Souquet (GER) and Stephan Cohen (FRA), Cohen remained the upper hand and bested Souquet by a whisker with 9:8.
The first half of the match belonged to Souquet. The German dominated at the table and Cohen struggled to get going. After 13 racks, Souquet was on the hill leading 8:5 over Cohen. At that point in time, the odds for Cohen were close to zero. But Cohen came back. He took some racks an the pressure was on for Souquet. With Souquet being in the lead 8:6, both players went for a time-out. When they got back to the table, it seemed to have worked better for Cohen. The frenchman took the next two racks and turned the match into a hill-hill thriller at 8:8. Rack 17 was won by Cohen who had managed to turn the tide in the match and performed a marvellous comeback in the tournament. With this victory, Cohen marched on into the next winner’s round where he overpowered Kim Laaksonen (FIN) 9:4. Cohen has booked his seat in the winner’s qualification round while Souquet needs to find his fortune on the loser’s side of the event.
#1 ranked player on the Euro-Tour ranking is currently David Alcaide (ESP). The Spaniard needed to do some serious work today. In his first match, he just made it 9:8 over Miguel Silva (POR). The next round was not easier for the #1 player. He encountered Abdullah Al-Youssef (KUW) and needed another 9:8 victory over the full distance to get his foot in the door of the winner’s qualification round.
Silva’s teammate Joao Grilo (POR) was a bit luckier today. He faced local hero Mario He (AUT) in winner’s round 1 and took the Austrian down unexpectedly clear with 9:4.
Today seemed to be not a good or easy day for the top ranked Euro-Tour players. Alcaide won his two matches with 9:5. #2 ranked player Joshua Filler (GER) lost 8:9 to Sergey Lutsker (RUS). „I did not have a break shot at all“, commented Filler after the match, „my break simply wasn’t there. That was the main reason for my defeat“. Also long time ranking leader and current #3, Mark Gray (GBR) could not make it through the winner’s side today. After defeating Piergiovanni Davy (ITA) 9:1, he fell 8:9 to unheralded Mariusz Skoneczny (POL).
Probably the most surprising comeback of the day was performed by dark horse Thomas Fjaeran (NOR). The Norwegian was trailing 1:8 after 30 minutes to Mieszko Fortunski (POL), the winner of the Dynamic Billard Italian Open in February 2016. Things looked over for Fjaeran. But the Scandinavian hung in there and started his amazing comeback. Never looking back, Fjaeran took it step by step and managed to realise the impossible, winning the match with 9:8 over a devastated Mieszko Fortunski!
Today’s feature match which was broadcasted LIVE on the EPBF Facebook page was the clash in winer’s round 2 between Denis Grabe (EST) and Oliver Ortmann (GER). The match went up and down. In the beginning, Ortmann looked like the clear winner, taking a 4:1 lead after five racks. But grabe came back. Additionally, Ortmann’s break shot left him and no wonder Grabe managed to close the gap and even overtake Ortmann, leading 6:4 after the next five racks. However, Ortmann survived that critical phase and found his game back, taking the next racks and getting on the hill at 8:7. Grabe played a safety in rack 16 which was not good enough for Ortmann. The former World Champion from Germany went ahead and cleared the rack, winning the thrilling match with 9:7 over Denis Grabe.
Tomorrow, the Dynamic Billard Austrian Open in Alpina Wellness & Sports Hotel, St. Johann i.Pg., Austria, will continue at 09:00 CET with matches from loser’s round 2.
Every day, one match from the event will be shown LIVE on the Facebook page of the EPBF. All Facebook users may check out the high standard of quality which is provided for all the events and see what the Kozoom members receive all the time. You can see all the matches on up to 20 tables live via www.kozoom.com who stream the whole event on the internet LIVE. The FB live matches are announced on the EPBF Facebook page around noon every day. Results and schedule can be found at www.eurotouronline.com so why not come and check out all the LIVE action of the Dynamic Billard Austrian Open starting Thursday 18th May at 09:00h
The events will be hosted by the European Governing Body for Pool, the European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) and organized by International Billiard Promotion (IBP). For further information and reference please go to the federation website www.epbf.com, visit us on Facebook or check out our youtube channel for regular news clips or contact our press office press@epbf.com.
