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At the same time as the Eurotour in Sindelfingen, the 9th edition of the
Mike Massey Open was played in the Freizeitcenter Kakadu in Bettlach / SUI.
The promoting team with A. Zelei and H. Niederhauser with the new company P3
had invited 8 players for the final round on Sunday, whereas the other 24
participants were determined in a qualification with 164 players.
My first opponent was F. Vogel from Switzerland. The young Swiss was
obviously very nervous and made a lot of mistakes, so that I could book a
clear 11-4. The second German player, O. Ortmann, had come back after
trailing 2-8 against D. Jungo (SUI), but finally lost 10-11. The third
German, T. Engert, won clearly 11-4 against Meier (SUI).
In my second match against R. Guerriero (SUI), I had a slow start. Even if
the result of 11-3 seems to be quite clear, the match was tighter than the
result. Engert won against P. Menillo 11-6. In the quarter-finals, I had to
play the former Junior World Champion D. Jungo. The match was balanced and
the lead went back and forth. At 6-5, I missed the opportunity to increase
the lead. From now on, Jungo played very well and was leading 10-7. But then
he made a safety mistake and I could come back into the match. I made use of
each small opportunity and finally managed to win 11-10. At the neighbouring
table, Engert looked like the winner against M. Immonen. But at 8-2, he
missed two opportunities and the Finn stayed in the match. He even equalled
at 8-8, but finally Engert won 11-9. Now, I had to play once more against my
room mate. I took the lead at 1-0 and then, played two good safeties. Both
times, Engert hit the object ball perfectly over the rail and turned the 0-1
into a 8-1 lead. I even did not come back to the table, except for racking
up. He was only lucky at the 2-1, when he scratched and the ball was
pocketed in another pocket than the one planned. He then made a mistake and
I won a rack. At 2-9, Engert wanted to play a safety which I could sure not
have escaped from. But he played not hard enough and made a foul. Thanks to
this foul, I could win the rack and come back to 5-9. At 5-10, the slightest
mistake could have lead to the KO, but I fought and played well. I won rack
after rack and equalled at 10-10. In the last rack, I missed a difficult 2
ball, which remained in the pocket. Engert could reach the ball via the rail,
but hit it too full and had it remain in the pocket. I made use of this last
chance and won 11-10 and entered the final against the new no. 1, S. Tot
from Hungary. He had won the second semi-final against M. Chamat (SWE) and
had started as well as Engert before and took a rapid 7-0 lead. Chamat could
come back, but finally had to give in 6-11.
The final did not
correspond to the expectations of the crowd. The match turned out to be a
single-sided matter for me. I played an almost perfect match and won 11-1
– the man from Hungary did not have much of a chance. So, I could catch up
with my result from the Eurotour and entered the winners list of the Mike
Massey Open.
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