NEWS  April 4, 2007   Swiss 9-Ball Grand Prix – Second title this year

For the second time, the Swiss Grand Prix was played in Biel. In this sports crazy town in Switzerland, people speak both French and German, but the visitor has the feeling, that French is preferred by 95 % of the population. I had been invited by the promoter to participate in this event and was very much looking forward to it, after hearing many positive feedbacks from players who had played here last year. Everybody had told me about the enthousiastic crowd. We played first in double KO in races to 6, 7 and 8 with winner’s break. In the final round of 32 players, the format was KO in races to 10 with alternating break.

In my first round group 3, I first had a walk-through, before playing Jothy Thavapala – I won

6-0. My next opponent was Daniel Oeschger from Switzerland, who did not stand much of a chance when losing 2-6. So, I was already qualified for the KO round, and this round was played the same day within the group in a race to 8 with alternating break.

My opponent was Eric Juvet (SUI). I continued to play well and by winning 8-2, I was qualified fort he final round which was played in the Le Pavillon.

I was seeded on rank 2, behind defending champion Sandor Tot (SRB) and the draw made me play Martin Andres from Switzerland. I think that my opponent was very nervous, because when losing 1-10, he missed some good opportunities.

In round four, I played Murat Ayas from Turkey who lives in Switzerland. I was in full control of the match, even if I did not make use of all the opportunities I had. At 9-6, I had the first match point, but missed it. All of a sudden, the score evolved to 9-9 and Ayas had the break. However, he did not play a good position on the first ball and missed the next position as well. Now, he was thinking for some five minutes, but did not find the solution. I could pocket the remaining balls and had reached the quarter-finals against my fellow countryman Christian Reimering. I won this match 10-6 and entered the semi-finals. My opponent was, for many spectators a big surprise, Mehmet Cankurt from Turkey who lives in Germany. He had eliminated the Russian player Konstantin Stepanov with a very good performance 10-5. I also won this match, in spite of some mistakes, 10-6 and had reached the final.

Here, I was opposed to the local hero Dimitri Jungo. On his way to the final, Jungo had eliminated first Andreas Bucher (SUI), then Nicolas Ottermann (GER) and in the quarter-finals defending champion Sandor Tot (SRB). His semi-final win over Tony Drago (MLT) had been frenetically cheered by the crowd, so that I could sense what was waiting for me in the final.

The match started well for me and I was rapidly leading 4-0. This somehow paralyzed the crowd and I could avoid the worse. But then I made two mistakes and the crowd was back again. Jungo came back to 3-4, before he made another mistake. From now on, I made use of every opportunity and finally deserved to win 10-6. This was my second title in 2007.
 

Award ceremony