NEWS February 26, 2008  ET French Open – A final Drago vs. Reimering

 
For the kick-off of the Eurotour season 2008, 254 players found their way to Paris, France in the district of Sucy-en-Brie. In the Leader Billard Club, the tournament was played on 25 tables and again, there were a few changes in the rules fort he new year.

The most important change was the set-up of the rhombus, which is now positioned further up, with the 9 ball on the foot spot. This rule was introduced to eliminate the soft break from the game and this was welcomed by the players with mixed feelings. This change extends the match times by up to 30 minutes per set, so that major delays were the result by the end of each day.

Consequently, first considerations were made to reduce the format at the next event to races to 9. In this context, the 3 block break would be replaced again by the normal alternating break.

Seeded as number three, I started in my group E against Frenchman Diego Fernandez and after a slow start I managed to win 10-4. In round two, I was opposed to the Croat player Philipp Stojanovic who lives in Regensburg, Germany. At the beginning, I had problems again and was trailing 1-4. But then, I stopped making mistakes and without losing any more racks, I finally won again 10-4. In round three, I played, as in almost every tour event, against Matjaz Erculj from Slovenia. Somehow it became the rule that I started bad, since I was trailing again 2-4. But I could improve my game and finally won 10-5 and I stayed in the winner’s bracket.

The next match was already the qualification match fort he KO bracket against the Irish player Paddy Mc Loughlin. At the beginning, the match was balanced and I could take a decisive advantage only by mid-match. Then, the Irish player committed some mistakes and again, I won 10-4.

In the round of the last 32 players, my opponent was Sven Pauritsch from Germany and this time, I had a better start. I was leading 6-2 and had the match under control. But two missed balls on the same pocket brought suspense back to match and Pauritsch reduced the score to 6-7. Then, I was lucky when I missed another ball, but my opponent had a bad position. Now, things went into my direction and in spite of numerous mistakes, I finally won 10-7.

In the next round, it came to the clash on the TV table against Oliver Ortmann (GER). Right from the start, I had problems with the table, since not only the light was completely different. Normally, the TV tables are clearer, better illuminated and faster than the other tables, but this time, it was just the contrary. The pockets were tight and correctly cut, which was a good thing, but the lighting was awful. It felt like fog over the table and I had problems with thin balls. However, I had the better start and could win 2 racks on Ortmann’s break. But then, I lost my three breaks and was trailing 2-4. Ortmann could only pocket once a ball upon his break, but he was lucky enough that I had no entry balls on his missed breaks. At 3-6, I had the chance to come back with three breaks to follow, but I missed once and played a bad position in the next rack. This was the decisive situation of the match and in spite of another mistake made by Ortmann, I could not win anymore. In a match of two national selection players who played not well, I had to accept my elimination from the tournament on the score of 6-10. So, I finished on a shared 9th rank and dropped in the overall ranking to rank 6.

In the semi-finals, Christian Reimering was the last remaining German player. He won against Swiss player Marco Tschudi 10-7. In the second semi-final „Tornado“ Tony Drago (MLT) crashed the Finnish player Markus Juva 10-3. The final was a thriller and the German player managed to keep the match balanced for a long time. But finally, Drago won 10-6 and scored his first Eurotour title. 

The next Eurotour event will be played on April 10 to 12 in the area of Naples, Italy.