Germany's Andreas Roschkowsky, who went undefeated to capture the Paris Open on the weekend of January 21-22, never did end up facing the event's reigning champion, Nick Van Den Berg. That task fell to the UK's Karl Boyes in the event semifinals. Boyes eliminated Van Den Berg and went on to challenge Roschkowsky in the finals. The event drew its maximum 64 entrants to qualifying rounds on Saturday at the Leader Club Billiard 94 in Sucy-en-Brie, a Parisian suburb, and moved to the Cercle Clichy Montmartre in Paris on Sunday for its final, single elimination rounds.
The two finalists - Roschkowsky and Boyes - opened strong in Saturday's double elimination qualifiers, giving up only four racks between them as they chalked up identical 8-1 scores against their first two opponents; Severine Titaux and Jean Klug for Roschkowsky, Kem Sen and Stephane Vanel for Boyes. Reigning champion Van Den Berg gave up 10 racks in his first two matches against Alex Eve (4) and Olivier Mortier (6). Nikalaos Malaj gave up nine against Steve Leisen (4) and Joao Roque (5) and was the last of the four semifinalists.
Cristina De La Garza, who has recently emigrated to Europe, was among the early casualties in the qualifying rounds. She was shut out in the opening round by Quentin Clerc-Pithon, and though she battled to double hill in the first loss-side round, she was eliminated by Yves Bonnet.
The field whittled down to 16 players, and turned into a single elimination contest. Roschkowsky defeated Ivaylo Markof 9-6, survived a double hill battle against Stephan Cohan and downed Serge Das 9-3 to move among the final four. Boyes, in the meantime, after getting by Tilman Rumland 8-2, and Nicolas Kalb 9-5, defeated Nick Ekonomopoulos 9-3 to join his eventual finals opponent among those final four. Roschkowsky then eliminated Malaj 9-3, as Boyes was busy defeating Van Den Berg 9-6. Roschkowsky dominated the final match, allowing Boyes only two racks on his way to the Paris Open title.
