The first day of the Dynamic Billard Italian Open in the BHR Best Western Hotel in Treviso, Italy, has proven one thing for sure: the level and standard of European pool billiards is extremely high.
Clear victories were presented by two European star players who have decided to live in the United States these days. Mika Immonen (FIN) and Jayson Shaw (SCO) have attended the Euro-Tour since an absence of many years in order to find out about the competition level in Europe. "Iceman" Immonen, who has participated in the Euro-Tour since its beginning in the early 90’s and is living in the US for many years now, whipped Rafig Adigazalov (EST) 9:1 and then remained the upper hand over Mateusz Sniegocki (POL) 9:7.
"Eagle-eye" Jayson Shaw had a bit more work to do today. His first round match against Guilherme Sousa (POR) finished quite clearly with 9:4 in favor of Shaw. Then the Scotsman had to face Estonia’s Denis Grabe. That match went hill-hill and Shaw was the player with the better end, winning 9:8 after a heartbreaker in the 17th rack.
It is really hard to predict the outcome of matches in the Dynamic Billard Euro-Tour these days. Swedish all-time favorite and captain of the European Mosconi Cup team, Marcus Chamat, got a totally unexpected first round defeat from completely unheralded Thomas Poeschl (GER). Poeschl kind of steamrolled Chamat and won the match more than clear with 9:3.
The first-time Euro-Tour players from Vietnam have probably had mixed emotions today. Do, The-Kien won his match with Olivier Mortier (BEL) 9:6 and is still on the winner’s side. Luong, Chi-Dung lost his first round match 8:9 to Marco Spitzky (GER) and then defeated Steve Chick (GBR) 9:2. Luong is joined on the loser’s side by his teammate Nguyen, Quang-Huy who lost 6:9 to Marek Kudlik (POL) before he was able to win over Stefan Gruber (GER) 9:5. The fourth remaining team member of the Vietnamese national team, Pham, Phuong-Nam, has won 9:4 over young orange player Marc Bijsterbosch (NED) and is also still making his way through the winner’s side.
The current top guns of the rankings have performed flawlessly so far. Niels Feijen (NED), "The Terminator" has shown no mercy with his opponents today. 9:2 over John Tanttu (FIN) and 9:3 over Daniele Corrieri (ITA) are his merits of the day. Nick van den Berg (NED) only had one appearance today. However, it was an impressive one. Especially for Majid Al-Azmi (KUW) who could not win one single rack against "El Niño" from the Netherlands. Mark Gray (GBR) also only had one appearance for the day. He defeated Mark Magi (EST) 9:5.
The event continues tomorrow morning with matches from winner’s round 2. The tournament is played on 20 tables of which 12 will be in a livestream. In order to be able to follow all the action LIVE, premium membership can be purchased at www.kozoom.com. Once a premium membership is held, all events for the respective period of time can be viewed LIVE. Additionally, a huge video gallery is contained in the website.
The event is 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 eurotouronline.com, visit us on Facebook or check out our youtube channel for regular news clips or contact our press office.
