NEWS  January 23, 2008   Paris Open 9-Ball – Title defended

For the sixth time, the Paris Open 9-Ball were organized and as the defending champion, I was seeded fort he final round of 16 players. The two Dutchmen Nick van den Berg and Niels Feijen as well as the English player Imran Majid were also directly invited to the final round.

On day one, the qualification rounds were played with 64 participants and some European top players qualified for the final round. In the previous years, this was not possible, because only French players could play the qualification stages.

My first opponent was Frenchman Emmanuel Lemaire, against whom I had recently played at a EuroTour event. As before in the Netherlands, Lemaire seemed to have too much respect and made a few easy mistakes. The result was an undisputed 10-2.

In the quarter-finals, I was opposed to the next Frenchman, Stephane Cohen. This was a much tougher task and I managed to improve my game. Even if my game was all but perfect, I was in full control of the match, Cohen made a few mistakes and I won 10-5.

My opponent in the final was an old acquaintance, since I had played Yannick Beaufils (FRA) already at the IPT tour and last year at the Paris Open. Beaufils had eliminated in the first round of the final bracket Imran Majid, than last year’s runner-up Vincent Facquet (FRA) and in the semi-final Jonni Fulcher who plays for Switzerland.