Eurotour Swiss Open 2008 will be played in “One Pocket Billiard Center” in Payerne, Switzerland, starting 15th of October (accreditation) with the final played the 18th of October, at 8 p.m. local time.
This is the 96th Eurotour arranged since 1992. The first tour-stop was played in Belgium and the final was between two Scandinavians, Tom Storm from Sweden and Mika Immonen from Finland, with Mika Immonen becoming the first ever Eurotour Champion.
The format is as always 9-ball double elimination till the last 32, then single elimination. Race to 9, alternate break. Entryfee is 150 Euro, and maximum amount of participants is 256. Normally the field is full on all of the Eurotour's, and the registration for the Eurotour in Malaga (Spain) in December has already started. (Email Gre Leenders at gre.leenders@planet.nl for registration/information)
All matches will have rack-by-rack updates at www.eurotour.nu, and the matches on the tv-table will be available on www.bwin.com.
Invitation for Eurotour Swiss Open -http://www.eurotour.nu/Downloads/Tournaments/2008/ET_2008-06_Payerne_Open_English.pdf
Invitation for Eurotour Costa Del Sol Open –
http://www.eurotour.nu/Downloads/Tournaments/2008/ET_2008-07_Costa_del_Sol_Open_Englisch.pdf
Pricemoney breakdown
Winner - 5000 Euro (630 ranking points) (6800 $)
Runner-up - 3300 Euro (510 ranking points) (4500 $)
3rd – 2000 Euro (420 ranking points)
5th – 1480 Euro (350 ranking points)
9th – 1000 Euro (300 ranking points)
17th – 764 Euro (275 ranking points)
33 – 100 Euro (250 ranking points)
Ralf Souquet won the last Eurotour, the Netherlands Open, his first victory in an Eurotour since Belgium Open in 2003. Ralf has now an impressive record of 14 Eurotour wins, 9 x runner-up and 10 x finishing 3rd. Of the 95 previous tournaments Ralf has been in the semifinal in 33 of them! With his win in Netherland Ralf also managed to finally rank alone as the most winning player on the Eurotour.
Oliver Ortmann ranks second in the hall of fame, with his 13 victories, including 4 consecutive wins in 1994. The last player who managed to win back to back was Johnny Archer in 1999, when he won Portugal Open and Italy Open. Johnny Archer is one of three players outside Europe who has won an Eurotour. (Archer 2, Francisco Bustamante 2 and Ismael Paez 1).
Ralf Souquet, Oliver Ortmann and Thomas Engert dominated the Eurotour in the 90's. These days there are no players who really dominates the tour, and a proof of that is that in the last 18 tournaments (since 2006) only Christian Reimering of Germany has managed to win more than one Erotour, so in total 17 different winners on the last 18 tournaments.
Mark Gray from Great Britain, ranked # 1 in Europe, won last years event in Switzerland, beating Vilmos Foldes (Hungary) in the final. Mark Gray will have to repeat his victory to have a hope of keeping the prestigious first place on the ranking. Bruno Muratore from Italy is only 5 points behind, and since Bruno finished 17th last year, he will earn extra points if he finish higher than 17th this year. The newly crowned World Ten Ball Champion, Darren Appleton from Great Britain, is ranked 8th on the Eurotour, but he didn't compete in last years event in Switzerland, and he will add points to his ranking no matter what results he will get. He has now 2000 points, and a high finish will perhaps make him a new leader! But be also aware of Ralf Souquet, ranked 6th, who finished 65th in last years event, and Thomas Engert, ranked 4th, who finished 33rd last year. With a good tournament one of them is also likely to become the new man on top!
Ranking top 8:
Mark Gray, GBR (won last year)
Bruno Muratore, ITA (17th last year)
Niels Feijen, NED (9th last year)
Thomas Engert, GER (33rd last year)
Nick Van Den Berg, NED (5th last year)
Ralf Souquet, GER (65th last year)
Imran Majid, GBR (17th last year)
Darren Appleton, GBR (didn't play last year)
Complete rankinglist:
http://www.eurotour.nu/Ranking/Eurotour_Ranking.htm
The ranking on the Eurotour decides who will get some of Europe's spots in tournaments as the World Pool 9-ball Championship, World 8-ball Championship, World Ten Ball Championship, Qatar Open, Mosconi Cup, World Pool Masters and World Cup of Pool.
