Richard Jones is the Champion

“It feels absolutely amazing, it's a dream come true”!

Saturday, July 09, 2011: In high class final, Richard Jones crushed Serge Das and won the match with 9:5, becoming the 2011 Dynamic Euro-Tour Austrian Open Champion.

Jones had the far better start and seemed to be much more in gear than Das. He was leading already 3:1 when he executed a perfect jump shot over the entire table, pocketing the 1-ball and getting a tough position for the 2-ball. He also made the 2-ball and ran the rack to take a 4:1 lead over Das. More than that, he showed Das that he was ready for becoming a Champion today.

In the 6th rack, Das broke and scratched. Jones ran the balls… and missed the 7-ball! That did cost him some momentum. “It was a twitch”, said Jones later, “I knew that if I would make the lead bigger and bigger, it would be hard for Serge to come back”.
But Serge Das came back. After the mistake, the match went along and got tighter since Das managed to close the gap a bit. At the score of 6:5 for Jones, Das broke the balls. No ball went in and safeties were exchanged. Das forced Jones to play a foul. He then played another good safe on Jones since the balls were still not open. Jones answered that with a marvelous resafe which forced Das to play a foul shot. Jones ran the rack and took a 7:5 lead. Then Jones broke and ran and went on the hill which probably broke Das' neck.

The last rack of the match went like many before. Safeties were handed back and forth but in the end Jones turned out to be the man at the table having a shot at the object ball. He cleared the table and won the match with 9:5 and took the Championship here in Austria.

“This victory makes me very proud. There are several British players who have won a title and I always knew I could join that fine group. Today, this has happened and for me a dream has come true!”

The final match:
Serge Das BEL v Richard Jones GBR 5 : 9

The winner will receive 4500,- € and 550 points for the Euro-Tour rankings. The runner-up will receive a prize of 2800,- € and 480 points for the Euro-Tour rankings.

Final standing Top 16 Dynamic Austria Open

1. Richard Jones GBR 4500,- €
2. Serge Das BEL 2800,- €
3. Mateusz Sniegocki POL 1800,- € Mark Gray GBR 1800,- €
5. Darren Appleton GBR 1380,- € Christian Reimering GER 1380,- € Konstantin Stepanov RUS 1380,- € Hubert Lopotko POL 1380,- €
9. Chris Melling GBR 900,-€ Daryl Peach GBR 900,-€ Raj Hundal IND 900,-€ Carlos Cabello ESP 900,-€ Imran Majid GBR 900,-€ Albin Ouschan AUT 900,-€ Bartosz Rozwadowski POL 900,-€ Phillip Stojanovic CRO 900,-€

Euro-Tour Top Ten:

1. Nick vd Berg NED 2305 pts
2. Chris Melling GBR 2300 pts. Ralf Souquet GER 2300 pts
4. Darren Appleton GBR 2150 pts
5. Karl Boyes GBR 2140 pts
6. Mark Gray GBR 2100 pts
7. Konstantin Stepanov RUS 2080 pts
8. Daryl Peach GBR 2030 pts
9. Sascha Tege GER 2020 pts
10. Mario He AUT 1980 pts

This concludes the coverage of the event.

The Euro-Tour event was 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 event website www.eurotouronline.eu , follow us on twitter @EPBF_News or contact our press office.