At the
first stop of the Diamond 9 Eurotour in Monfalcone / Italy, the field was
again completely booked with 192 players. Some players even had to be
refused. For the next stop in Sindelfingen, a fourth game day was decided,
to be able to extend the field to 256 players.
After
a walk-through, my first opponent came from Italy. However, S. Fiumi
couldn’t help the 2-9 defeat. In my second match against M. Ercujl from
Slovenia, I was leading 3-0, when my opponent placed an intermediate
sprint and all of a sudden, I was trailing 3-5. But from there, I regained
control over the match and won 9-5. In round 4, my opponent was R. Jones
from Great Britain. Until 0-5, I only came once to the table. The man from
Britain played without committing the slightest error. But a break foul
brought me back into the match and I not only fought back to equal the
score, but I won all remaining racks and won 9-5. This match sure belonged
to the top category of Eurotour matches. So, I was qualified for the final
round of the last 32 players.
On
early Sunday morning, I played D. Alcaide from Spain, who had qualified
the day before through the losers bracket. I took a rapid 3-1 lead and
after a successful rail shot, I had a good position on the 2 ball. I tried
to make use of the width of the pocket, and had to watch the 2 ball remain
in the pocket, but on the table. This most probably was the decisive ball
of the match, because from now on, nothing worked out on my end. Alcaide
played well and was also lucky in three decisive situations. That’s the
way it is, when you feel well and when you play well, but you don’t earn
anything in the end. This was the case for me and I had to accept a 6-9
defeat. I missed my objective by finishing 17th and I have to catch up
with the lost points in two weeks in my home tournament in Sindelfingen.
In
the semi-finals, T. Engert (GER) defeated O. Ortmann (GER) 9-8 and T.
Hohmann (GER) won 9-6 against A. Lely (NED). The final was the remake if
the final at the German Championships two weeks ago. But this time,
European Champion Engert won 9-6 against World Champion. So, Hohmann took
the overall lead int the rankings in front of T. Storm (SWE).
