Predator European Pool Championships Up and Running in Estonia
PLAY GOT UNDERWAY at the PREDATOR European Pool Championships today at the spacious Kalevi Hall in Tallinn as both men’s and women’s straight pool completed their first day of action. Both tournaments conclude on Sunday with the first medal presentation of the championship. Denis Grabe is the leading Estonian player in the field this week […]
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Denis Grabe
PLAY GOT UNDERWAY at the PREDATOR European Pool Championships today at the spacious Kalevi Hall in Tallinn as both men’s and women’s straight pool completed their first day of action. Both tournaments conclude on Sunday with the first medal presentation of the championship.
Denis Grabe is the leading Estonian player in the field this week and he’s in some of the best form of his career, having won the Las Vegas Open on the Predator Pro Billiard Series last month. Grabe, comfortably made his way through to the single elimination of the 14.1 discipline with three good wins and can look forward to going for gold tomorrow.
He said, “It was pretty good today. I made 74 in the last match but I can still improve tomorrow and hope to play better. I’ll take it match-by-match and try and get as good a result as possible and show my best in front of a home crowd as it’s wonderful to have the championships in my home town.
“We’ve had the Euro Tour for two or three years here and it’s kind of similar so I know what to expect but obviously the European Championships, it’s the first time here and I’m glad that it’s well-organised and I feel that it’s a pretty good standard overall. I’ll try and show my best game and see what happens because sport is sport and you never know what’s going to happen,” he added.
Daniel Maciol
Another player in his best-ever form is Poland’s Daniel Maciol who is really coming good on his earlier promise. A maiden Euro Tour win last year, followed by a runner-up finish at the last event of 2025, sandwiched a superb victory at the Qatar World Cup and then a last four finish at the recent European Open.
Maciol opened his Predator European Championship account with two wins to make his way into the last 32 and he felt that his game had moved up a level over the preceding 12 months.
He said, “I have to say that I’m in a very good performance level right now and I truly believe that my results prove it and I’m looking forward to this tournament. It’s well organised – Predator and the EPBF did very good work here – so my plan is to enjoy the game – every single discipline – and try to beat my results from last year.
“And then after the European Championships, I will focus on the Euro Tour and of course I’m really counting on our team as we won back-to-back gold medals and we’ll be going for three in a row.
“I really worked hard with my psychologist on other things apart from the table and I believe that it helps me and self-confidence is a big part of my game that has improved from last year,” he concluded.
Kristina Zlateva
The women’s 14.1 tournament has progressed to the last 16 on the winner’s side and Bulgaria’s Kristina Zlateva is in the mix following a great 75-13 win over dynamic Swedish junior Linnea Hjalmarstrom.
Zlateva is now a full-time resident of Birmingham, Alabama but has jetted back to Europe specifically for the Predator European Championships.
“This match, I really felt good – I don’t think I missed a ball. I felt much better than my first match although first matches are obviously a little tricky. I gave her very few chances and won by a big margin and had a nice run.”
Zlateva claimed a bronze in this same division last year and feels she has it in her to improve on that finish, “If I just play smart, that’s very important because sometimes I play too risky and leave an open table and I just have to be careful with that.
“I like straight pool but we just don’t get enough tournaments so I don’t think any of us has enough experience but I also love 10-ball. Everybody hopes they get a medal; that’s the goal here but I’m just going to focus on my game because if you think too hard about winning then you’re not in the game.”
Action will resume on Sunday morning with in the men’s straight pool with the Losers’ Qualification round followed by the last 32 single elimination. The ladies will restart at the Losers’ Qualification followed by the last 16 round. Both sets of semi-finals get underway at 17.00, culminating in the two finals at 20.00, followed by the medal ceremony.
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
