Wojciech Trajdos - Ralf Souquet - Sponsor -
Dawid Jedrzejczak - Adam Skoneczny
After
qualifying for the Masters three weeks earlier by winning the last edition
of the Hestia Cup, the winners of the tournaments met in the Hestia Cup
Masters. The only exception was Europe’s new number one, Konstantin
Stepanov from Russia, who replaced Dutchman Nick Van den Berg who was on
holiday.
As
in the tournaments before, the game was 9-Ball in races to 7 with
alternating break. The Polish television “Polsat” recorded one match and
showed the other two matches live and in full length.
The
draw made me play against Martin Kempter from Austria. He won the right to
break, but I managed to win the first rack. But I instantly lost this
advantage, something which happened twice again during this match. At 4-4, I
could win again the rack upon my opponents break and won the next rack upon
my own break to lead with two racks 6-4. At 5-6, Kempter scored again, but
now I had the chance to win the match upon my own break. But I missed this
opportunity and my opponent equalled the score. Now, I had to hope for
Kemper to make a mistake in the last rack. I could make use of a bad
position of my opponent and entered the final winning 7-6.
The
second semi-final between Hubert Łopotko from Poland and Konstantin
Stepanov from Russia was a single-sided affair. The Polish player could not
benefit from his many opportunities and only made the Russian player
stronger. In only 35 minutes, Stepanov entered the final winning 7-2.
In
the final, I won the right to break and started well with an ace. In the
next rack, we both missed twice the opportunity to score this rack, before I
finally made the point to lead 2-0. Í shot another ace and managed to break
upon my opponents break in rack 4 and this was almost an early decision. I
kept my advantage until the end, won 7-2 and scored my second title in Sopot.
