The heat is on in Sarajevo

In the single elimination round of the last 32 players in junior's division, Berk Mehmetcik (TNC) delivered a thrilling match with Alex Renard (FIN), getting the better of him with 7:6 in the end. But that was one of the most chaotic matches Mehmetcik has probably ever played. He fouled three times and missed 9 shots in the set - a complete disaster for the talented player from Turkish North Cyprus. However, somehow Renard could not capitalize from Mehmetcik's mistakes. The main problem of Renard was his break shot. He only pocketed balls on 28% of his break shots. A poor proportion. However, he played unspectacular and got his points since Mehmetcik committed too many mistakes when he was in charge of the table. This lead to a situation where Renard went on the hill, leading 6:4 after ten racks. The pressure became unreal for Mehmetcik. He was the better shotmaker and the favored player but due to his performance he had one foot in the grave. He ran out rack 11 and benefitted from a mistake of Renard to tie the match at hill-hill. In rack 13, Renard broke and had one of the few occasions where he managed to pocket a ball off the break. The table was open for him with some work left to do. He ran six balls and missed the final ball of his group. Mehmetcik came back in and ran the rack, playing very carefully and averting the catastrophe to lose. In the end, the 7:6 victory for Mehmetcik was lucky but he was the better shotmaker and had the better nerves. However, he will need to improve to stay alive in the 8-ball competition. His next opponent at 15:15 CET will be Martin Todorov (BUL) who defeated Emilis Abelkis (LIT) with 7:2.