Peach and Hundal also join Melling on his way home
Saturday, July 09, 2011: In a very exciting match, Mateusz Sniegocki (POL) eliminated Chris Melling (GBR) from the Dynamic Euro-Tour Austria Open 2011 with 9:7.
The match was characterized by both players having trouble to pocket a ball on the break shot and keep the cue ball under control. Ten of sixteen breaks ended up with no ball down for the shooter. Whereas Sniegocki had four out of eight breaks where he managed to pocket one or two balls, Melling only managed to pocket a ball on one break shot out of seven. That gave a clear advantage to Sniegocki.
However, Melling did not really miss a single shot in the entire match. “I think I played well” Melling said, “the match turned out just to be unlucky for me.”
That was more than true. Everything went according the plan until the score was tied at 3:3. Then Sniegocki tried to hit the 1-ball after a safety shot from Melling. He did contact it, and the 1-ball went in a pocket unintentionally. Sniegocki used this opportunity and ran the rack to take a 4:3 lead over Melling.
The next rack, Sniegocki missed a tough shot on the 8-ball and Melling closed the gap tying the match at 4:4. In the 9th rack, Sniegocki luckily pocketed the 9-ball after playing safe on the 1-ball. His luck was evened out by Melling in the next rack when he fluked the 5-ball in and got to pocket a 3 to 9 combination shot. The score was then 5:5 and both players played at an equal strength, making hardly any mistake and making use of the opportunities that luck and the opponent offered them. As the match continued, both players struggled with their break shot with Sniegocki getting better momentum going. Leading 7:6, Sniegocki played a good combination shot but ended up finding himself in a tough position on the 3-ball. He played a great safe and forced Melling to play a foul shot. With ball in hand, he was able to win the rack and went on the hill leading 8 games to 6.
In the 15th rack, Sniegocki missed a tough 3-ball and left it as tough as it was for Melling who pocketed it and ran the rack to come to a score of 7:8.
He then broke the balls but again no ball went down on the break shot. Sniegocki pockets the 1-ball but misses the 2-ball which falls into another pocket. That was big luck for the Polish. Sniegocki played a good safe on the 3-ball, forcing Melling again to play a foul shot. Again with ball in hand, Sniegocki ran out and snatched the match with 9:7.
“So far I did not see any player here who was really able to control his break”, Sniegocki stated after the match. “It is very hard here to play good position since the tables are tough to play. I really like this setup”. He then was confronted with the fact that he has now eliminated Souquet and Melling out of the tournament. Who can stop him now? Sniegocki smiles and responds: “I think there are many players here who can still stop me. But I am self-confident. I think I will have my chances”.
Other notable results were Mark Gray defeating his fellow British countryman Imran Majid with 9:7. Former World Champion Daryl Peach (GBR) had no chance against Christian Reimering (GER) who presents himself in a very good shape here this week. 9:4 was the result in the end in favour of the German player. Richard Jones (GBR) ended all Austrian hopes in the event by eliminating Albin Ouschan (AUT) clearly with a result of 9:5. Raj Hundal (IND) fell to the blade Segre Das (BEL) with 6:9.
Last 16 players results:
Bartosz Rozwadowski POL v Hubert Lopotko POL 6 : 9
Mark Gray GBR v Imran Majid GBR 9 : 7
Darren Appleton GBR v Philipp Stojanovic CRO 9 : 6
Albin Ouschan AUT v Richard Jones GBR 5 : 9
Serge Das BEL v Raj Hundal IND 9 : 6
Carlos Cabello ESP v Konstantin Stepanov RUS 8 : 9
Daryl Peach GBR v Christian Reimering GER 4 : 9
Mateusz Sniegocki POL v Chris Melling GBR 9 : 7
The losers of this round will each receive a prize of 900,- € and 330 points for the Euro-Tour rankings.
Quarter finals:
Hubert Lopotko POL v Mark Gray GBR
Darren Appleton GBR v Richard Jones GBR
Serge Das BEL v Konstantin Stepanov RUS
Christian Reimering GER v Mateusz Sniegocki POL
The Euro-Tour 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 event website www.eurotouronline.eu , follow us on twitter @EPBF_News or contact our press office.
