Karlo Dalmatin (CRO) lost to Maksim Dudanets (RUS) with 8:9 in a heartbreaker at the Dynamic Billard Dutch Open Euro-Tour in Leende, The Netherlands.
The first round match started out as expected. Dudanets had a grip on the match and took a quick and comfortable 6:1 lead over Dalmatin. It looked like the Croatian would receive a tough bashing by the Russian kid. But then Dalmatin somehow recovered and started playing more focussed while Dudanets committed some negligent mistakes. „These pockets do not allow mistakes“, stated Dudanets right after the match. And he definitely knew what he was talking about. His easy going allowed Dalmatin to get a foot back in the door. Better performance together with a bit of luck turned the match which started out as a one-sided show into a thriller. Trailing 4:7, Dalmatin found himself on the table without any position. Dudanets had played a safety shot and Dalmatin needed to hit the 4-ball over one rail. In fact, he did not only hit the correct ball but also pocketed the 9-ball unwanted in the side pocket in order to turn the scoreboard to 5:7. That obviously caught Dudanets a bit off-track. The Russian struggled and started to commit easy mistakes himself. Leading 7:5, he missed an easy 6-ball and Dalmatin accepted the gift, coming closer with 6:7. Rack number 14 was a break and run by Dalmatin. The tension got high in the match. Dudanets answered that action with a break and run himself to get on the hill, leading 8:7. In rack 16 again, Dudanets had the chance to finish the match but he once again missed a makable shot. He played a poor position on the 4-ball and consequently missed it. Dalmatin got his nerves together and all of a sudden the match was a hill-hill affair at 8:8 with Dudanets’ break to come up. The drama seemed to be complete for the young Russian when the cue ball scratched after his break shot. All balls were spread wide open on the table with Dalmatin having ball in hand. But whatever the Croatian was thinking, he took a huge risk and tried to cheat the pocket on the 3-ball in order to get a better position on the 4-ball. The 3-ball did not fall in the pocket and Dudanets got back to the slate. „I know I lost focus in the middle of the match“, said Dudanets, „and the game started punishing me. Rightfully so! However, in the end I was a bit lucky and still managed to win the match somehow“. That was very true and displayed in the final rack. Dudanets once again missed the 6-ball and Dalmatin could not benefit from it. He also missed the 6-ball and Dudanets finished him with 9:8 in the end. Dudanets was victorious over Dalmatin but the match was by far not as clear as it would have been expected beforehand.
Other remarkable results from today’ first round matches include former junior World 9-Ball Champion Christian Goetemann (GER) winning 9:6 over local player Tim Jonkman (NED). A bit of a surprise was the 9:8 victory of Nicolas van Parys (BEL) over Michal Turkowski (POL).
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