The House of Billiards in Weert - The Netherland was the host for the 7th Open Weert 9-ball Championships over the weekend with a record field of 359 players in attendance.
Qualifier events were held from Wednesday to Saturday where players competed for a position in the final 64 players who would fight it out on Sunday for first place. The field was full of champions including Ralf Souquet, Thomas Engert, Oliver Ortmann, Andreas Roschkowski, Fabio Petroni, Sandor Tot, Niels Feijen, Nick van den Berg, Alex Lely, Marcus Chamat, Mika Immonen, Raj Hundal, and Snookerstar Ronnie O 'Sullivan who defeated Thomas Engert 6-5 to earn his spot in the final 64.
Before the main event got underway on Sunday, an invited field of 8 players competed in a 'Sudden Death 7-Ball' event where Mika Immonen scored wins over Raj Hundal, Mario Lannoye and Marcus Chamat to earn the $8500 top prize.
The main event got started on Sunday with two unexpected upsets in the first round. Belgium's Jan Dulst beat German Andreas Roschkowski 8-4 and Alex Lely dominated Ralf Souquet 8-2. Lely continued his hot run in the second round and ran 6 racks on his way to a 9-2 win over Thomas Engert. The match of the second round was between Fabio Petroni and Ronnie O'Sullivan. O'Sullivan misssed a 9-ball that would have given him the 9-6 win and Petroni came back to tie the match at 8-8. At hill-hill, it was Petroni that missed the final 9-ball and O'Sullivan cashed in to make it to the final 16.
O'Sullivan continued his winning way with victories over Christian Prager and Brian Beekers to get to the final match against Saturday's winner Mika Immonen. Immonen had earned his spot in the finals with wins over Nick Van Den Berg and Alex Lely. The finals saw Immonen score a 10-6 win to finish a $13,500 weekend.
In the womens division it was housepro and New WPBA Pro Wendy Jans from Belgium claiming the first prize with a 6-1 win over Jennifer Vietz from Germany. Jans collected $925 for her victory.
Total Payout's
1st Mika Immonen $5000
2nd Ronnie O 'Sullivan 2500
3rd/4th Brian Beekers/Alex Lely $1250
5th/8th Christian Prager, Nick van den Berg, Holger Gries, Klaus Zobrekis $625
7-ball Sudden Death Challenge
Mika Immonen $8500
Women
1st Wendy Jans $925
2nd Jennifer Vietz $465
3rd/4th Estelle Bijnen, Diana Stateczny $200
