Friday, April 15, 2011: Milos Verkic (SRB) defeated European 9-ball Champion Nick van den Berg (NED) 9:5 at the Eurotour's Dynamic Italian Open. "I play in the Euro-Tour for many years now. My best place was 5th", says Verkic. The Serbian took a quick lead in the match but van den Berg was able to get back to 4:4. From then on, Verkic marched on and never gave the chance to van den Berg to get back in the game. When asked, which place would satisfy him in this tournament, he replied "only 1st place" with a smile on his face.
In the next round, the loser's qualification round, Verkic was eliminated by Ivica Putnik from Croatia with a score of 9:5.
Ralf Souquet will be joining Putnik in the single elimination stage. He won his match against Guilherme Sousa (POR) clearly 9:5.
A thriller was promised to be staged on the feature table #24 between David Alcaide (ESP) and Bruno Muratore (ITA). But the match did not quite deliver what it promised. Alcaide won 9:3 over a Muratore who never really got into his game. "I think I have played better safeties and Bruno missed too many shots. The balls didn't roll in his favour", said Alcaide. In fact, Muratore was completely disenchanted with his own performance. "I really played very bad", said Muratore when he left the arena. Other players who made it into the final 32 were Thomas Mehtala (SWE), Mark Gray (GBR), Alexander Kazakis (GRE), Jakob Belka (GER), Imran Majid (GBR), Konstantin Stepanov (RUS), Petri Makkonen (FIN), Mario He (AUT), Gabor Solymosi (HUN), Roman Hybler (CZE), Italy's last man standing "Fabulous" Fabio Petroni, Manuel Gama (POR) and Marcus Chamat (SWE). They will be drawn into the single elimination stage and will each face one of the players who have made their way through the winner's bracket.
The 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 or contact our press office.
