NEWS March 6, 2006 Interpool Open – Two titles

Mikael Mutto-Ralf-Thomas Mehtälä

The Interpool Open was held for the second time in Gävle, Sweden and co-owner Marcus Chamat had invited a couple of top players (Mika Immonen, FIN; Tony Drago, MLT; Raj Hundal, UK; Ralf Souquet, GER). All in all, some 120 participants had registered for this 9-Ball tournament with handicap (amongst which also Tom Storm, SWE; Fabio Petroni, ITA; Roger Lysholm, Ronnie Oldervik, both NOR). The matches were played in races to 9, whereas most of the players had a starting bonus from 1 to 5 racks. And the local rule gave the break to the player who had lost the last rack, not the winner. This made it much more difficult for the top players of the event, because when you start the match at 0-5 for a race to 9, without having the right to break upon a rack win, it is very difficult. It seemed impossible to come back in such a situation.

In my first match, I played Bojan Stefanov from Sweden (bonus +2) and he played an almost perfect game. Trailing 1-7 and 3-8, I seemed to have lost the match, but then he made his first mistake. I won rack after rack and still had to hope for a bad break or a bad position for my opponent. Some of the rail shots I had to play were rather tricky, but I played each shot with success. At 6-8, Stefanov had a 95 % combination 2-9 in front of him, but he missed and kept me in the match. I won the next racks and finally the match 9-8.

The tournament schedule was, at this point in time, already 3 hours late and I had to play in the Pro/Am competition with one of the sponsors. In the semi-final at Double Hill (4-4), I missed the decisive 9 ball against Tony Drago and his partner Stefan. Bad enough, this ended the hopes of my partner Uwe to assist at the IPT kick-off tournament in Las Vegas as a spectator. Drago and Stefan won the final against Chamat and Sarah. Stefan, my double mate last year, was more successful this year and can now assist live to the first IPT event of the year in the Venetian Hotel.

Marcus Chamat-Urban Persson

Right after this, I played my second group match against Mirjam from Sweden (bonus +5). She played quite well, but missed a few opportunities to win a rack and finally, she lost 5-9. The next day, the group matches resumed and I played 11 years old Karl Lind (SWE) (bonus +5). Lucky enough for me, his break was not too successful in the beginning and with a good safety game, I came back to 4-5. With a three ball combination, Lind increased his lead to 6-4. I won the next rack, and instead of equalling the score, I lost the cue ball when playing the 7 ball. Again, I was trailing by two racks, before I could equal the score for the first time and even taking the lead at 8-7. In rack 16, I missed twice the 9-ball to win the match and had to put my bets on the last and decisive rack. But I had the break and ran out the table. With my second 9-8, I entered the KO bracket of the last 32 players.
The draw made me play Marcus Chamat (SWE), all but an easy opponent. But I played very well and finally deserved to win 9-7. The 9-Ball tournament was now stopped to resume the next day.
The reason for this interruption was the Interpool 8-Ball Invitational with 6 invited players. Ewa Laurence (SWE/USA) had to cancel her participation due to an injury and Robert Grönlie (NOR) inherited the free spot. The 2 remaining spots were distributed in an open qualification event two days earlier.

Linnea-Ralf

So, we played 8-Ball in races to 7 according to IPT rules.
The draw:
Chamat (SWE) – Drago (MLT) 7-4
Hundal (UK) – Magnusson (SWE) 7-3
Immonen (FIN) – Oldervik (NOR) 7-4
Souquet (GER) – Grönlie (NOR) 7-2 after trailing 0-2
In the semi-final, Chamat defeated Hundal and I played very well to beat Mika Immonen 7-1.
The final was a remake of last year’s final of the 10-Ball Invitational between Chamat and myself. And history seemed to repeat, since at the beginning, I took a rapid 3-0 lead, before Chamat came back to 2-4. But then, this was it.
I won this Special event 7-2 and won my third title in the Interpool Cafe.

Gävle

The next morning, we started with the round of the last 16 players in the 9-Ball Handicap tournament. My first opponent was Swede Magnus Lindgren (bonus +2). His first breaks remained without success and so I could make up the score and take the lead. I booked a clear 9-5 and had entered the quarter-finals against Mika Immonen (FIN). At the beginning, the match went back and forth, while both players made some mistakes. At 5-5, my engine had reached service temperature and I could tale the lead. With the 9-5 success, I had entered the semi-finals. My opponent here was Fabio Petroni from Italy, who was not satisfied with his match. So, I could take an 8-2 lead without too much trouble. A lucky ball of the Italian and a black break on my end caused the intermediate score of 8-4. But then I ran out the next table and entered the final with a clear 9-4. My opponent here was Thomas Mehtälä from Sweden, whom I had played already 20 years ago in the Youth European Championship in the 14.1 final. His first break was an ace and he took a 3-1 lead. I did not play well and make a few position mistakes during the match. But I had enough opportunities to fight my way back into the match. At 6-6, I took the top of the match. For an easy position 6 on 7, Mehtälä saw his cue ball run too close to the 7 ball, so that he had to lay a safety. Even if I could not pot the rail shot, I was lucky to leave him with a very bad position. The Swedish player made a foul, I had ball in hand, and could take the lead for the first time (7-6). The next rack could have been the 7-7, but he missed the 6 ball and I was only one rack from the title. In the next rack, I played a good safety and forced my opponent to commit another foul. With ball in hand, I ran out the table and won 9-6. This was my fourth title at the 4^th event of the Interpool Cafe in Gävle.

Ralf-Sarah