NEWS  May 22, 2006 EnjoyPool.com 9-Ball Championships – Double victory for the European players



  Arena
 

Between May 14 and 20, Las Vegas hosted the EnjoyPool.com 9-Ball Championships, formerly known as the BCA Open. A very strong competition field with 64 participants in the men and women competition showed billiards at its best.

In round one, I played George Breedlove (USA), who had produced over the last years a series of good results in Las Vegas and who had recently succeeded in qualifying for the new IPT tour. I was trailing all the time, but finally managed to win the match 11-9.

In round two, it came to the re-make of the EC final from Brandenburg against Marco Tschudi (SUI). The Swiss player showed great sport without any respect and could keep the match open for a long time. Only in the last third of the match, he made some mistakes and I could make use of those to finally win 11-7.

In round three, again a European show-down against Dutchman Niels Feijen, the current no. 1 of the world ranking. Playing my very best billiards so far, I fully deserved to win 11-6 and to enter the next round. My next opponent was US player Corey Deuel, who had won the week before a charity tournament in Spring Hill, Florida against Johnny Archer (USA). In this high level match each player ran out the table from break and in the decisive 21st rack, Deuel missed a bank shot on the middle pocket. With a difficult combination and a very tough position on the next ball, I finally managed to win the last set in the tie-break. In the round of the last four winners, my opponent was „Magician“ Efren Reyes (PHI). None of us could make use of the break advantage during the first seven racks. Until then, the match hadn’t been a high level performance, but this was about to change. The match turned out to become a thriller which I finally managed to win 11-9.
 


Semi Final


Final

My opponent in the final of the winners bracket was Johnny Archer (USA). He played perfect break shots and did not commit any mistakes and I had to accept my 8-11 defeat, but had a second chance in the final of the losers bracket (semi-final). After wins over Jose Parica (PHI) and Charlie Williams (USA), Reyes had fought his way back into the tournament and was now my opponent in the semi-final. Due to the TV broadcasting on the US channel ESPN, the format was reduced to a race to 7 with a 30 seconds shot-clock. The modified format and the time limit made this match a „ Hill-Hill“ match.

Reyes had the first break and had to play as an entry shot a difficult 1 on 8 combination, since the cue ball was positioned very close to another ball. The missed this shot and I could run out this difficult rack, I won the set 7-6 and had entered for the second time after 2003 the final of this prestigious tournament.

In the final, Archer had the better start and after winning the first rack, he expressed his satisfaction of having done better than last year, when he lost 0-7 to Thorsten Hohmann (GER). I then could take the lead and at 4-2, I had the great opportunity to win the match. But I missed an easy 2 ball and brought Archer back into business. At 5-5, Archer had to play a Push-out, which I handed back to him. He missed the long, thin 1 ball and offered me an open table. I re-gained the lead and was leading 6-5 with my own break to come – I was about to win the match. I pocket a ball upon my break and had the option to pocket the 1 ball via a rail shot or to play a safety. I decided to play a double option, trying to pocket the 1 ball and by the same token, leave a bad position for my opponent if ever I was to fail to pocket the ball. But I managed to pocket the 1 ball and now had the rack in my hands. The 8 ball was somehow tricky, but finally I managed to win 7-5 and the title.

In the ladies competition, the Austrian player Jasmin Ouschan defeated the current world no. 1 Alison Fisher (GBR) 7-5 and scored the greatest success in the career. Rank three went to the Swedish player Helena Thörnfeldt who lives in the USA.


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Ralf-Toi


Ralf