On day one of the Swiss 10-Ball Open in Gstaad, all of the favorites made their way to the final round. Four groups of about 20 players each competed with the the top four finishers qualifying for the single elimination stage on Saturday.
In Group one, it was Michal Gavenciak from the Czech Republic who had no problems winning two easy matches. His fellow countryman Roman Hybler, who actually lives in Munich/Germany, followed him only minutes later. On the one-loss side it was the third well-known player in this group, Vincent Facquet from France, who earned his place in the single elimination stage by eliminating Harry Perathoner.
Whilst Englands Imran Majid unfortunately did not appear in Switzerland, it was young-gun Mario He (Austria) who was in the driver’s seat in Group two. Two very fast 9-0 and 9-3 wins let him go through to the final 32.
In Group three it was time for the Swiss players like Dimitri Jungo and Marco Tschudi. Both had no problems in winning their matches to make it to the final round.
Group four was dominated by German World Games Champion Ralf Souquet. He only lost three games in two matches, so it was a very short appearance by “The Kaiser” in route to his place in the final 32.
Harald Stolka, the former EuroTour Champion from Germany, had a few more problems but finally had the better end of a very close match against Rolf Hollenstein.
All results, livescore and livestream can be viewed on www.gstaadswissopen.ch
