This weekend the Austrian Open Eurotour took place in the Patrick's Tavern in Rankweil. Two hundred sixteen players entered, trying to claim their share of the € 44.000 purse. Thomas Engert won the German Open only three weeks ago, but was not able to produce the extraordinary fact of booking a successive Eurotour win. He lost against ‘the Maharaja' Imran Majid in the last 32 on Saturday morning. With forty participants, the German contingent strongly outnumbered the other countries, but it never was productive…proven by a German absence in the quarter-finals.
One Russian, two Polish, two Dutch and three Brits were battling it out in the quarter-finals and the result was the following semi-final line-up: Mateusz Sniegocki versus Imran Majid and Niels Feijen versus Nick Van Den Berg. Both Imran and Nick played very focused and loose, punishing every mistake from their opponents. In the semi's they granted their opponents three and two games respectively. The final, would Imran score his third Eurotour win or Nick his fourth and the first Dutch win since 2006?
NVDB caught a major gear in the final rounds and the scores really speak for themselves. A very dominant win for the Club 8 house pro, who recently became the proud father of Sky van den Berg. Having had little sleep the past period and very few hours at the practice table...how did that contribute to his form? Or was he inspired by the immaculate, mesmerizing soccer played by the unleashed Dutch in the European Championships?
Nick van den Berg: ”Before the birth of Sky we moved and worked hard on our little home. After that Sky was born, all in all a very hectic and stressful yet very fulfilling period in our lives. I have had little practice time lately, the last month actually none. The only out-of-competition pool that I play is online on www.poolstars.com, where I am ranked in the top 10. Maybe it does render in some way, because you are visualizing the shots. The lack of pool-hours apparently doesn't hurt my game. I do need more time to warm up in a tournament, but mentally I feel very fit and with a lot of desire. The further I progressed in the tournament, the more confident I grew. With the format changed to 9-on-the-spot and alternate break, there is little or no time to find the spot and the speed for the break. Before the final I hit twenty breaks looking for the sweet spot. I found it and that got me kick-started right from scratch. I have felt little pressure during this tournament. I feel like I have everything I need, but now having won my fourth Eurotour title sure tastes sweet”.
