Kristina Zlateva
Bern, the capitol city of Switzerland, hosted the Mezz Women’s Swiss Open, the country’s largest women’s tournament of 2016. The women’s pool scene in Switzerland has been steadily dwindling over the past years and the Swiss Championship qualifying tournaments reached very low numbers in the 2015 season. Tournament organizers, Cristina Tschudi and Daniel Schneider, wanted to hold an event that would inject some life into women’s pool in this region and raise the level of competition.
With 58 players representing 11 different nationalities, the tournament featured a star-studded field with multiple Swiss and European medal holders. This two-day 9-Ball event paid a prize fund of 5200 CHF and over 3000 CHF in additional prizes including products donated by Turtle Rack, Zan Tips, Shot Pad and the event organizers. In addition to the main event and the men’s side event, players competed in one-on-one shoot outs and break and run contests to win the additional prizes like Swarovski jewelry sets and pool equipment.
Day one had many close matches and tough competition. Top European players came out strong on day one with Kristina Zlateva (Bulgaria), Claudia Von Rohr (Switzerland), Pia Blaeser (Germany) and Veronika Ivanovskaia (Germany) advancing to day two on the winners side. Other notable results were Swiss players, Noc Steiner and Franziska Jakob, who placed 9th which is their highest finish in a large international women’s event. The four local favorites, Christine Feldmann, Yini Gaspar, Claudia Von Rohr and Cristina Tschudi, did not disappoint as all four advanced to day two and the final 8.
On day two, Zlateva squeaked past Swiss Champion, Yini Gaspar, with a 7-6 win in the first round sending Gaspar to the one loss side. Gaspar made a good run eliminating the other Swiss Champion, Von Rohr in another hill-hill match but the junior German sensation, Blaeser, was too much for her in the next match and Gaspar went out in 5th place. Blaeser faced her road partner, Ivanovskaia, in the first round of the final 8 and lost with a score of 4-7. Blaeser then won over Gaspar but would have to settle for 3rd place as Zlateva ousted her with a decisive 7-1 win in the semifinals. Also finishing in 3rd place was American 8-Ball Champion Cristina Tschudi who lost in the first round of the final 8 to Pia Blaeser but fought her way back with 7-3 and 7-5 wins over Christine Feldmann and Yvonne Ullmann.
Zlateva dominated throughout the weekend losing only 15 games in the entire race to 7 tournament. She steadily ran through the winners’ bracket going undefeated to eventually win the tournament with a dominant 7-3 win in the finals. Also reaching the finals was Veronika Ivanovskaia with wins over Feldmann, Blaeser, and Tschudi. The 22 year old Bulgarian, Zlateva traveled from her home in Madrid, Spain to capture this title. Congratulations to her on this impressive win.
Thank you to the sponsors:
Mezz Cues www.mezzcues.com
Zan Tips www.zan-tip-com
Turtle Rack
Aramith www.aramith.com
Iwan Simonis www.simoniscloth.com
Omega Billiards www.omegabilliards.com
Winners Pool Billard Club www.winners-sport.ch
Billiard Sport Club Bümpliz www.bscb.ch
