The first day of the Atlantic Challenge Cup is now in the books with Team EUROPE owning a narrow 2-1 lead. The event began with a team match with all six players from both teams playing so every player had the opportunity to adjust to the table and conditions and that match was a barn-burner that went to a double hill tie at five games apiece before Ricky Evans of Team USA captured the final nine ball to give the win to America.
From there we went into the first triplet match of the day. Team Europe put out a team of Maxim Dudanets, Vitaliy Patsura, And Kristina Tkach while the Americans offered Chris Robinson, Ricky Evans and April Larson. The first match was Chris Robinson versus Maksim Dudanets of Moscow and Robinson (who proved to be Team USA's strongest player for the day) defeated Dudanets to give America the early lead.
But that lead evaporated quickly as Vitaly Patsura of the Ukraine took down Ricky Evans of Missouri to tie the match at two and then Kristina Tkach of Moscow got by April Larson of Minnesota to give the Euros a 2-1 lead in our race to six games. Chris Robinson of California then evened us up at two apiece when he defeated Vitaliy Patsura.
The next two matches were traded as as first Ricky Evans overcame Maxim Dudanets and Kristina Tkach got past April Larson. Three all after the first six games. America then grabbed their last lead of the match when Chris Robinson outgunned Maxim Dudanets.
From there it was all Team Europe. Vitaliy Patusra beat up on Ricky Evans, Kristina Tkach kept the momentum going by besting April Larson, and Vitaliy Patsura finished the match off by overcoming Chris Robinson.
So after the first two matches our score was tied at 1 match apiece and the deciding match was another set of triplets with Team Europe presenting Andreas Madsen of Denmark, Kristian Cwilka of Poland and Diana Khodjeava of Belgium while Team USA came with Shane Wolford of Virginia, Ryan Ponton of Illinois and Serena Black, also of Illinois.
This match was lopsided in favor of Europe. Game one went to Andreas Madsen over Shane Wolford. The second rack was owned by Kristian Cwilka over Ryan Ponton and the next game found Diana Khodjeava taking it from Serena Black. Then Shane Wolford grabbed the only point in the match for Team USA as he defeated Kristian Cwilka. That would be the onl;y glory USA found as the next three racks and the match went to Team Europe when Andreas Madsen beat Ryan Ponton, Diana Khodjeave defeated Serena Black and Andreas Madsen capped us off and ended the venting with a nice win over Shane Wolford.
The poise and skills displayed by these youngsters is really quite amazing. Enjoy the action live on the internet with the free stream by going to http://www.playcsipool.com/live-streaming.html. PLay begins Satruday with an afternoon session at 3 PM CST and an eventing session kicking off at 7:30 PM CST.
The Atlantic Challenge Cup is a co-presentation of the Billiard Congress of America and the European Pocket Billiard Federation. This event would not be possible without the very generous contributions of the sponsors. When making a buying decision please consider the companies who give back to the game. Our loyal contributors are: Atlas Billiard Supply, Connelly Tables, Aramith Billiard Balls, Simonis Cloth, Master Chalk, Imperial International, Lucasi Cues, Predator Cues, McDermott Cues, Pechauer Cues, Viking Cues, AZBilliards, CueSports International, Brad Scuffer, The APA, Matchroom Sports and Ultimate Team Gear.
