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NEWS January 31, 2007 Paris Open 9-Ball – First title in 2007 |
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For the fifth time, the Paris Open in 9-Ball were played in the capital of
France. I was one of four international players who had been invited to this
event to face France’s top players in the “Billard Academie”. 64
competitors fought for 8 spots in the final bracket of 16 players in KO
format. In the first round, I played Frenchman Eric Robaine, whom I managed to
defeat 10-4 after a good start and an intermediate 8-1 lead. In the
quarter-finals, my opponent was Willy Wu from France who had previously
upset Stéphane Cohen. I a very good match, the French player did not stand
a chance and with my 10-2 win, I had entered the semi-finals against
Dutchman Nick van den Berg. Another good match and I had won 10-6 against
the Paris Open Champion of 2003 and I had entered the final of this
tournament for the first time. My opponent in the final was once more a
Frenchman, Vincent Facquet, who had won the second semi-final against his
country fellowman Yannick Beaufils. Before this, Beaufils had defeated
seeded former Paris Open Champion Roman Hybler (CZE) and Facquet had upset
defending champion Sandor Tot (SCG) in the quarter-finals.
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