NEWS 09-11-07 Metropool Open – Drago defeats Souquet

Petroni - Souquet - Drago - Erculi

For the second time, the Metropool Open was played in the Slovene city of Kranj, but to the disappointment of the promoters, only 45 players had enrolled for the event. However, the field was very strong, which assured a great mood with the crowd, but also with the organizers. The format was 9-Ball in eight groups with 5 or 6 players in Round Robin. In round one, the matches were played in races to 7 with alternating break.

In group 8, I was first opposed to the Slovak national team player Jaroslav Polach who lives in Hungary whom I defeated on the tight score 7-6. I won my next match against Smiljan Ramšak (SLO) 7-1. My third opponent was the Serbian player Ivan Hodžič who plays for Denkendorf in Germany and I also won 7-1. I scored the same result also against my next opponent Miha Šinkovec from Slovenia and could enter my last first round match against Dejan Orlič from Croatia without too much stress, since I was already qualified for the intermediate round. I won again 7-3 and as the winner of my group, I could hope to have an easier group in the next round.

The second round was played in 8 groups of 4 players in races to 9 and my group number was again the 8. My first opponent was Robert Adžič from Slovenia and I stayed in full control of the match winning 9-2. Then I had to play Jožko Marinko (SLO), and scored a 9-5 success. Last opponent in this group was Božo Primič from Croatia and I won again 9-3.

As winner of my intermediate group, I was opposed to a group runner-up in the final round of the last 16 players and the draw made me play against Alessandro Torrenti from Italy. I won 11-6 and was qualified fort he quarter-finals. My opponent here was my fellow countryman Klaus Zobrekis, who had enrolled in the last minute for the event. The match was very balanced and was a real thriller. I wasn’t exactly lucky in this match, since I could only once pocket a ball upon my break without trouble. At 10-10, I could have taken the lead fort he first time, but the cue ball fell in a corner pocket. With ball in hand, the remaining 7 balls should not have caused a problem to Zobrekis, but then the unexpected happened. Zobrekis also let the cue ball drop, without having been under pressure. So, I could pocket the remaining 4 ball to finally score a tight 11-10, which seemed to be somewhat lucky, but finally, this victory was not undeserved, considering that I played against bad luck throughout the match.

In the semi-final, my opponent was Italian player Fabio Petroni and right from the start, I could take a small 2 rack lead. Petroni played aggressive billiards and tried a rail shot which I would not even had dreamed of trying. Consequently, he missed this 5 ball and I could increase my lead to 7-2. In the next rack, the 8-2 was almost done, but a bad contact allowed Petroni back to the table and after winning also the next rack, he came back to 4-7. The next racks went back and forth and at 10-6, I could have earned my first match point. But I did not succeed and had to wait for my next opportunity at 10-9. But this time was the right time and I won the match 11-9.

Ralf

In the final, I was opposed to „Tornado“ Tony Drago from Malta, probably the fastest player in the world. At the beginning of the match, things turned bad because I had twice bad luck. First, an already pocketed ball sprang back to the table and then I had a bad contact between cue ball and object ball. Instead of 3-3, the score evolved to 1-5 and now, I was completely out of the zone. My frustration grew and at one point, after a safety laid by the Maltese player, I shot a rail shot with 100 km/h in the direction of the object ball. This was an easy task for Drago who increased his lead to 2-10. I managed to win the next three racks to come back to 5-10, but then it was time for the showdown. Tony Drago won 11-5 and the title at the Metropool Open 2007. Third place went to the local hero Matjaž Erčulj from Slovenia.

All in all, it was a great tournament to play and everything was smoothly organized. Many thanks to the promoters, the Metropool Pool Café and owner „Gringo“ Janc and all helpers.