9-Ball Completes Opening Day In Tallinn – Predator European Pool Championships Presented by the City of Tallinn –

Wojciech Szewczyk

9-BALL IS THE final individual discipline at the PREDATOR European Pool Championships and there were multiple rounds of play in all four categories today. Play reconvenes tomorrow in the single elimination stages with the men at the last 64 single elimination point, the women and Under 23s at the Loser’s Qualification Round,  and the wheelchair users at Winners Round 1.

Wojciech Szewczyk, who came close in the 8-ball tournament last night, losing out to Stefan Kasper in the final, was back at it today as he opened his account in the 9-ball division. The Pole defeated Italy’s Samuele Barbagiovanni 9-3 to advance to the last 64 and give himself the rest of the day off.

Commented Szewczyk, “I was pretty lucky in that match. It turned out to be a walk in the park but it didn’t have to be. Because I played a good shooter but with some luck on my side, managed to close it pretty quickly. I’m going to go and find an opportunity to practice my break. I know if I want to do good in 9-ball, I need to try it a few times and figure it out.”

On his 8-ball silver medal, he said, “I’m happy with the silver medal in the 8-ball. Of course, straight after the final I was having a hard time convincing myself I was happy! But the day after, I’m pretty satisfied, especially the way I played over the whole tournament. And I’m also happy for Stefan because if I was to lose, it’s nice that I lost to a very friendly, nice guy and a deserving winner.

“Me not winning on the Euro Tour is a topic so I think in 8-ball, that I could be having the best chance so I don’t mind that we’re playing 8-ball and I had a very good warm up playing all those matches in the European Championship.”

Denis Grabe

Another player looking to improve on a previous medal is Estonia’s Dennis Grabe, who earlier in the Championships claimed a bronze in the straight pool category. After losing his Winner’s Qualification match 9-8 against talented youngster, Walter Laikre (Sweden), Grabe bounced back to trounce countryman Sander Tamm to take his place in the single elimination.

Grabe said, “I’m expecting to get to the last 64 or even further so not really so much pressure. Walter played well in the match previous and he made a runout at hill-hill so I didn’t have a chance at hill-hill, so I had to come back and make a practice game in the evening match.

“There’s a lot of great players and I got a medal so my tension went down a little bit but I’m still trying to get another and we’ll see how it goes tomorrow. I’m off home to relax and have a good night’s sleep,” he concluded.

With the medal table usually dominated by the likes of Germany and Poland, one of the lesser-known squad here in Tallinn are the Azerbaijanis who made the seven-hour trip from Baku to compete among the best in Europe.

Among their team is Azhdar Nazirov, who won his way through to the 9-ball last 64 earlier today. Afterwards he opened up about the pool scene in Azerbaijan.

“Pool is popular there. People are engaged to play pool and the young generation are very keen on pool and we have a lot of pool halls where the young people can play. As a part of the former USSR, Russian pyramid was the most famous game in our zone which the older generation prefer but more recently young people are mostly playing pool.

“It’s our team’s second time here at the European Championships and it’s a brilliant organisation. We admire the organisers and it’s good to participate in such a huge event. Our aim is to be a host in the future maybe first for Euro Tour and maybe in five years we may also talk to the EPBF about hosting the EC in our country. It would be an honour for us and we want to be part of this pool family,” he concluded.

Play continues tomorrow morning at 9.00 when the Men’s, Women’s, Under 23’s playing down to the final four, while the wheelchair users get down to the final six players.

This year sees a new streaming platform for the Predator European Championship events. Tables 1 and 2 will be streamed throughout on YouTube, via the Pro Billiard TV channel –  https://www.youtube.com/@ProBilliardTV

In addition, competing players are permitted to stream their own matches on outside tables to their public social media accounts.

For all results, live scoring and draw, visit www.epbf.com/tournaments/european-championships/

EPBF Sponsors

▸ Predator Group
▸ Iwan Simonis Billiard Cloth
▸ Aramith Billiard Balls
▸ Longoni Cues
▸ Kamui Brand

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