Nikos Ekonomopoulos (GRE)
On the first day of the Dynamic Billard Dutch Open at the Golden Tulip Jagershorst Hotel in Leende, The Netherlands, Nikos Ekonomopoulos (GRE) succeeded over Maksim Dudanets (RUS) with 9:7 in a match that was determined by many errors.
The lineup was promising. Ekonomopoulos belongs to Europe’s pool elite for many years already. His opponent today, Maksim Dudanets, belongs to the young Russian players which have earned many merits during European Championships and previous Euro-Tours. Both players have a high profile record and the match was expected to be of high quality. In the beginning of the match, that was valid and true for Dudanets. He played solid and performed quite well while Ekonomopoulos committed unexplainable errors. He missed easy pots and positions and he seemed to be completely off track. After 6 racks, Dudanets had robbed at least three racks off Ekonomopoulos and was 5:1 in the lead. It seemed as if the match would be a single sided affair in favour of Dudanets. But then the tide turned in the match. While Ekonomopoulos grew stronger, Dudanets started missing shots and playing poor positions. A player with the experience of Ekonomopoulos of course benefitted from the situation and snatched some racks from Dudanets in that phase of the match. After 14 racks, the score was all square at 7:7. The tension rose and now it was Dudanets’ turn to commit mistakes. He did so and Ekonomopoulos capitalised from it, went on the hill with 8:7. In rack 16, Ekonomopoulos broke and ran the table to win the match 9:7 over Dudanets. This victory was achieved with quite some luck. Dudanets was the far better player in the first half of the match while Ekonomopoulos dominated the second half. The victory therefore is in order yet still a bit lucky. Ekonomopoulos will face Sanjin Pehlivanovic (BIH) in the next round on the winner’s side while Dudanets needs to seek his fortune on the loser’s side of the draw.
Other remarkable results include Wojciech Sroczynski (POL) defeating Evgenii Buslaev (RUS) by a whisker 9:8. Sweden’s Daniel Tangudd remained victorious today over Denis Grabe (EST). Former World Champion Oliver Ortmann (GER) took down up and rising star Joshua Filler (GER) 9:7 in an exciting and thrilling encounter. Tomi Ahonen (FIN) got the better of Imran Majid (GBR) 9:8. Not the best day for Britain’s pool elite. In the same round, Joao Grilo (POR) achieved a 9:4 victory over Daryl Peach (GBR). Mohammed Soufi (GER) won 9:5 over Mario He (AUT).
Every day, one match from the events will be shown LIVE on the Facebook page of the EPBF for free. 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 live via www.kozoom.com who stream the whole event on 23 tables on the internet LIVE. The FB live matches are announced on the EPBF Facebook page every day. Results and schedules can be found at www.eurotouronline.com so why not come and check out all the LIVE action of the Dynamic Billard Dutch Open.
The Dynamic Billard Dutch Open at the Golden Tulip Jagershorst Hotel in Leende, The Netherlands will continue tomorrow morning at 09:00 CET with matches from winner’s round 2.
The event is 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.eurotouronline.com visit us on Facebook or check out our youtube channel for regular news clips or contact our press office press@epbf.com.
