NEWS April 9, 2007 Interpool Open & Invitational – two final defeats against Chamat

For the third time, the Interpool Open, a handicap tournament, was held in Gävle, Sweden. Upon the completion of the medal ceremony of the Swedish championships in 8-ball men, ladies and juniors, the Interpool Open could start. A full 128 player field played in eight groups of 16 players in double KO format until the round of the last 32 players. Then, the competition continued in KO format. The matches were played in races to 11, but many players were granted between 1 and 8 racks to make up the handicap against stronger players.

As double defending champion, I was seeded on rank 1 and played in round one last year’s European championship player Mattias Pettersson from Sweden (handicap +1). I played a very solid game and won 11-2. My next Swedish opponent was Dan Andersson (HC +4), who also scored a single rack and did not stand a chance when losing 5-11.

In round three, I was opposed to Johan Maioli (SWE, HC +1), and after winning an undisputed 11-3, I was already qualified fort he final round.

Here, I played first Andreas Bedeus (SWE, HC +1), and I managed to win 11-4.

The same evening, the 10-Ball invitational was played in races to 8. My opponent was Tom Storm (SWE), and after a clear lead, I had to struggle a bit to win 8-6. In the semi-finals, I played Sweden’s number one in snooker, Kevin Zarakani who had to go through the qualification. This match lasted very long, since none of us could really get into some fluid play. But finally, I closed the match with an ace and won 8-4.

In the final against Marcus Chamat, I made use of every opportunity and was already leading 6-1. After a short discussion about a safety I played, Chamat scored with a bit of luck the 2-6. In the next rack, I had already solved a difficult situation and then missed a 99 % 7 ball, because I wanted to avoid contact with the 8 ball. In the next rack, I played a bad position on the 8 ball, but should have been able to play a better position on the 9 ball. However, I also missed my position on the 9 ball and consequently missed it. Instead of winning the match and the tournament 8-2, the score was now 6-4, still in my favour. After a break foul by Chamat, I came back to the table in the next rack, but in spite of having ball in hand, the situation was very tricky. I played a safety, but Chamat not only touched the object ball via a rail, but managed to pot it. From now on, everything went well for Chamat and bad for me. The situation was so strange that I could not help laughing inside. I had not experienced such a bad streak for ages. After having led 6-1 and a good performance, I lost the match 6-8 and was severely punished for just two mistakes. So, I failed to defend my first title.

The next day and after only 5 hours of sleep, we continued with round four in 9-Ball. I played Tony Segerstav (SWE, HC +2). In the early stage of the game, I was unlucky because when I played a draw ball, a piece broke out of the ferrule and I had to change my shaft. Even if this new shaft was not bad at all, the leather was too new, too high and hard as stone. According to the manufacturer, this was supposed to be smooth leather, but if this was smooth, I would not even dare to try the hard ones. During the match, I scratched once, even if I could see a clean contact on the leather. Now, I was much more careful when playing draw balls and this translated into a somehow crisp game. Somehow I managed to win the match 11-7 and was qualified fort he quarter-finals, where I was to play Thomas Mehtälä (SWE).

The match was rather balanced, but there were several occasions where I should have terminated the match. I finally scored a tight 11-9 and had entered the semi-finals. Once more, my opponent was Sweden’s number one ion snooker Kevin Zarakani. After winning the first three racks, my opponent started to complain about my racking. Even if we racked up for ourselves, he always checked my triangle and complained about wholes in the rack. This was due to the fact that the balls were pretty old and did not have the same size anymore. However, he achieved what he wanted to achieve and had broken my run. All of a sudden, the match was balanced again and Zarakani even took the lead. Towards the end, I came back into the zone and could score a difficult 11-9 to reach the final.

My opponent was once more Markus Chamat. The match was balanced until the 4-4, but I had already missed two opportunities to score additional racks. Then, the same misadventure happened as the day before. I had bad luck stuck to my stone hard leather and Chamat could do whatever he wanted. He simply succeeded on everything he tried. On top of this, he played great billiards and finally won 5-11. After winning the two titles back in 2006, I finished two times runner-up in 2007. However, with 6 finals in 6 tournaments at the Interpool Showdown in Gävle, my statistics are rather satisfying, even if I failed to score the big one once again.