9-ball started today
Thursday, 11 August 2011: In the first winner's round of the 9-ball competition of the Dynamic European Seniors Championships in Alvisse Parc Hotel, Luxembourg, Johann Wallner (AUT) made the running against Askin Burcu (TNC) and defeated him with 9:6 after a great comeback.
After 5 racks, Wallner was already 1:4 down to Burcu who seemed to play his best performance of the week so far. But suddenly the boot seemed to be on the other foot. After Wallner took another rack, Burcu went for a timeout in order to settle and get started again. But things got worse for the player from Turkish North Cyprus. He continuously missed shots and the ultimate downfall was missing two ball-in-hand situations in one rack! On the contrary, Wallner grew stronger and played better from rack to rack though he also missed quite a few shots. As the match went along, Wallner took an 8:5 lead and was prepared for his victory celebration when he played a good safety shot for Burcu, hiding the cue ball behind the 7-ball while the 3-ball was the ball on. Burcu fired a shot over one rail and pocketed the 9-ball coincidentally! What a match! In the 15th rack, it looked like Buru could get even closer to Wallner but he missed an important shot on the 7-ball. Wallner used his routine and sunk the remaining three balls, winning the match deservedly with 9:6.
Other notable results include defending Champion Henrique Correia (POR) defeating Ralf Wack (GER) with a margin of 9:8. Reiner Wirsbitzki overcame his German teammate Thomas Damm with 9:6. Jacco Wieringa (NED) sent Heiko Müller (GER) to the loser's side with a 9:7 victory over him. Johny Vanrijkel from Belgium could not get a foot on the floor against his opponent Werner Scheu (AUT), losing 1:7. In the All-Portuguese clash, Manuel Pereira remained victorious over Luis Torres with 9:5.
The 9-ball competition will be continues until 17:00 local time today. After that, the quarter finals of the 8-ball competition will start.
The European Championships are 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 federation website www.epbf.com , follow us on twitter @EPBF_News or contact our press office.
