Today starts with the 8-ball competition and switches to team's event in the evening
Wednesday, 03 August 2011: Today has had its thriller already. In the juniors division, Jim Chawki (SWE), the defending Champion in that discipline and the newly crowned 10-ball European Champion had bow to Mario He (AUT), one of the toughest players in the field, who won the match with 7:6.
In the beginning, everything looked very good for Chawki. He took a quick 2:0 and 3:1 lead over He, making no mistakes. He seemed to struggle with his break. Then, Chawki started making some mistakes which opened the chance for He to come back into the match. He took that chance and tied the match at 3:3. Then, He was unlucky again with remaining dry on his break. Chawki ran that rack and the next one with his own break to now take a 5:3 lead over He. The Austrian played his next break shot where a ball went down but the cue ball was frozen to the head rail and thus very hard to play. Additionally, the balls were all in the center of the table so it looked like he had to go for a super tough shot into the side pocket. But He thought of a better plan. He played a marvellous safety shot and forced Chawki to make an error. Then He ran out to make the score 4:5. The next rack, Chawki ran out and found himself on the hill, leading 6:4 over He. Somehow He managed to stay in the match and never gave up; he won the next two racks and tied the match at 6:6. “Then, Lady Luck decided to change and go to He's side”, commented EPBF commentator Marco Takis. “Mario was very unlucky during the match so it was only fair that he had a bit of luck in the end”. What Takis was talking about in his commentary way the fact that Chawki had the break shot at 6:6, the table was completely open with no ball down. Easy prey for He who ran out and took the match with 7:6. He secured his seat in the final 16 single elimination stage of the 8-ball tournament while Chawki goes to the loser's side, needing to win one more match.
Other notable results of today include Manuel Ederer (GER), last year's runner-up, defeating Andrit Gjini (ALB) in the second loser's round with 7:1. He will now play Balasz Koles (HUN) in his next match. Bence Varga (HUN) sent his fellow countryman Bence Deak to the loser's side with a clear 7:3 victory. Lars Kuckherm (GER) was triumphant over Marek Kudlik (POL) with 7:4.
In the pupils division, David Maslov made his way to the final 16 players with two straight wins over Aapo Virrankoski (FIN) with 6:5 and Gergely Papp (HUN) with 6:2.
In the girls division, Luxembourg's Jannika Meyer defeated Stephanie Keiser (SUI) with 5:3 and Teresa Bachler (AUT) with 5:4 for a seat in the quarter final.
Today, 8-ball will be played until 18:30 local time. Then, the remaining two rounds of the day will see some more team's matches.
The European Championships are 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 , follow us on twitter @EPBF_News or contact our press office.
