Joshua Filler - Photo courtesy of David Thomson (Mediumpool.com)
Joshua Filler (GER) just won his first Euro-Tour tournament, the Dynamic Billard Leende Open 2019, with an impressive 9:7 final victory over Ruslan Chinakhov (RUS).
The final match was determined by high class pool billiards by both players. The pressure and the heat was on for the athletes. They took racks in turn and kept the match open for a long time. After 11 racks, Chinakhov missed an easy shot on the 6-ball when he could have gotten a 2-rack-advantage over Filler. But instead, the young German who just claimed his first World Champion title in 9-ball last year, levelled the match at 6:6. Then, he broke dry and gave the table back to Chinakhov. A safety battle occurred with Filler coming out as the winner. But now he showed some nerves and missed a makeable 2-ball. However, the Russian could not capitalise from Filler’s mistake and allowed Filler to get to 7:6. The next rack was a break-and-run by Chinakhov, so the heat was really on at 7:7. With Filler on the break shot, the World Champion kept his nerves together and got on the hill with 8:7. Then, Chinakhov broke and to his horror the cue ball scratched, giving Filler an open table with ball in hand. The layout was not easy, but Filler stayed as cold as ice and ran the rack, winning the match with 9:7 over Chinakhov who also performed extremely well during the Dynamic Billard Leende Open 2019.
„I can’t even describe how happy I am“, stated Filler when asked after the awards ceremony. „It was a long day with some really tough matches form me and now I’m really tired but extremely satisfied“, Filler added. When asked, was his next goal is after winning his first World Champion title a few months ago and now winning his first Euro-Tour, Filler’s answer came without hesitation: „US Open Champion“ !
Earlier today, several unforced errors and „easy“ misses could be watched by players who usually perform rock solid on the Euro-Tour. In the round of the last 16 players, Niels Feijen (NED) missed an easy 7-ball when he was on hill-hill with Ruslan Chinakhov. The Russian of course accepted the gift and won the match with 9:8. Also on hill-hill, Imran Majid (GBR) missed an easy 8-ball which put Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz (ESP) to the table and allowed him to win the match with 9:8. In the next round, Mark Gray (GBR) had the break-shot and a nice layout in front of him when the score was 8:8 against Joshua Filler. Gray missed the 2-ball and gave the table to Filler who ran it and decided the match with 9:8 in his favour.
Top Eight Finishers Dynamic Billard Leende Open 2019
1. Joshua Filler GER
2. Ruslan Chinakhov RUS
3. Maximilian Lechner AUT
Ralf Souquet GER
5. Wiktor Zielinski POL
Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz ESP
Mark Gray GBR
Albin Ouschan AUT
This result leaves Eklent Kaci (ALB) on top of the rankings with a big lead still. He is 315 points ahead of the #2 ranked player who is now Joshua Filler. The „KillerFiller“ catapulted himself on #2 with this victory here in Leende and still has one event less than the other top ranked players. #3 on the rankings is Albin Ouschan (AUT)
Top ten Euro-Tour Rankings
1. Eklent Kaci ALB
2. Joshua Filler GER
3. Albin Ouschan AUT
4. Maximilian Lechner AUT
5. Fedor Gorst RUS
6. Alexander Kazakis GRE
7. Niels Feijen NED
8. Mateusz Sniegocki POL
9. Mark Gray GBR
10. Ralf Souquet GER
That concludes the coverage of the Dynamic Billard Leende Open 2019. We will be back with more info about our next event, the Dynamic Billard European Championships for Men, Women and Wheelchair Athletes in Treviso, Italy, to be held April 27th through May 7th, 2019, followed by the Dynamic Billard Treviso Open for Men and the EPBF BHR Treviso Open for Women, May 9th through 11th, 2019.
The event was hosted by the European Governing Body for Pool, the European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) and organised by International Billiard Promotion (IBP). Play starts Thursday at 09:00 local time, for further information and reference please go to the federation website www.epbf.com under the Eurotour tab. You can also visit us on our Facebook page or check out the EPBF YouTube channel for regular news clips or contact our press office press@epbf.com.
