NEWS  May 7, 2007    ET Germany Open – First medal rank for more than two years



Heber-Jungo-Peach-Alcaide-Souquet
 

The third stop of this year’s Eurotour 2007 is over and the promoters, the IBP, and the organizers, Die Drei in Sindelfingen, can be more than satisfied. For the first time in Germany, the 256 players field was complete and the schedule did not leave much time for relaxing.

In my group D, my first opponent was Thomas Durst from Germany and I had the match under full control to win 10-1. Things were quite different in my second match and my opponent, Englishman Darren Appleton, was a much tougher player to face. Almost all over the match, I was running behind the score and was trailing. Because I made a few mistakes, I now had to wait that he would commit some as well. And towards the end, Appleton did me this favour and I could meddle my way through to the next round by winning 10-8. My next opponent, Vittorio De Falco (ITA), was also to be taken seriously. However, playing a very constant dame, I could put the Italian permanently under pressure and finally deserved to win 10-5.

Now, the qualification fort he final round was at stake and my opponent was Dejan Dabovic from Austria. To say it straight away – it was a terrible match with loads of mistakes made on both sides. My breaks did not succeed and the Austrian player could not make use of his opportunities to run out the tables. It turned out to be an awkward fight and I finally won 10-8.

So, I had entered the round of the last 32 players and the draw made me play first Stephane Cohen from France. I performed well on the TV table and made use of every opportunity during the match. In spite of the high temperatures of more than 30 degrees, I entered round four with an undisputed 10-2. Here, my opponent was the British player Richard Jones who delivered a great fight. Jones played with a lot of self-confidence and the match was balanced until 5-5. Then, Jones started to make a few mistakes, which I made use of and I finally won 10-6. For the third consecutive time, I had entered the quarter-finals of a Eurotour event, and this was something I had not managed to do for the last three years. My opponent here was Sascha Tege from Germany. I played almost without any mistakes and put my opponent under pressure. So, he made some mistakes and by winning 10-3, I entered fort he firs ttime since December 2004 a semi-final at a Eurotour event.

After more than 2 ˝ hours break, I played my semi-final against Dimitri Jungo from Switzerland. However, I started off with four mistakes which should bear heavy consequences. I missed any entry ball, played two miserable safeties and lost the cue ball when trying to play a position on a 4 ball. So, I was trailing 2-7. Even if I could come back to 4-7, I then lost the cue ball upon an otherwise perfect break. Now, I had to hope form y opponent to commit errors and Jungo did me this favour. Bad enough, I could not make use of the many mistakes made by my opponent, because the ball always remained in his favour. I played two more very good safeties and a good re-safe, but this was not enough to turn the match around. I lost 7-10 and finished 3rd. In the overall ranking, I made a short leap from rank 13 to rank 11.
 


Ralf

In the second semi-final, the British player Daryl Peach defeated my Mosconi Cup team mate David Alcaide (ESP) 10-5. Peach, on his way to the final, had eliminated a few top players (amonst others Niels Feijen and Thorsten Hohmann) and he was the favourite. He seemed to like the venue in Sindelfingen, since he had entered the final in 2005 and last year, he only lost in the semi-finals. Now, he had to play Dimitri Jungo, who had eliminated Nick van den Berg and Tony Drago and who happened to be my opponent recently in the final in Biel. But this final turned out to be a single-sided affair and one could sense that Peach really wanted to win this time. He played very well and Jungo could not repeat his great performance of the previous matches. Finally, the British player fully deserved to win 10-3 and so he scored his first title on the Eurotour. In the overall ranking, he jumped from rank 15 to rank 4. New overall leader is again Dutschman Nils Feijen, followed by Italian Fabio Petroni and Oliver Ortmann (GER).

The next tour stop will be on June 13 to 17 in Rankweil, Austria.


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