GANDIA - Spanish player Hector Cuadrado is the new European champion in artistic billiards, the title he won in Gandia, Spain, for the first time in his career. In the final he was the better of Frenchman Kévin Tran by 3 sets to 2. The Spaniard achieved a percentage of 67.48 over all 6 matches, Tran finished at 72.69%. The podium was completed by the surprising Hungarian David Keller (62.14%) and Dutchman René Dericks (66.03%).

In the qualifying round Hector Cuadrado beat his opponent Manfred Hekerle (Austria) with 57.67% followed by Baris Cin (Turkey) with 70.95%, before winning the round of 16 against his compatriot Jordi Oliver with 62.85%. In the quarter-finals Cuadrado beat the talented young Dutchman Jop de Jong (NL) with 75.98% in his best match and in the semi-finals he eliminated the other Dutchman René Dericks with 70.31%.

Kévin Tran, the silver medallist, first beat Jose Manuel Gomez Bravo (Spain) with 68.47% and then lost to Walter Bax (Belgium) with 66.66% without this affecting his qualification for the final table.
In the eighth round, the clash between Michael Hammen and Kévin Tran was decided in favour of the player from Marseille with 77.93% against 77.46% and only one point difference (166 against 165). In the quarter-finals Kévin Tran beat Belgian Eric Daelman with 85.04% and in the semi-finals he beat David Keller with 77.78%. Tran then played his worst match in the final, immediately falling behind by two sets and scoring only 21 points in the first two sets.

The losers of the quarter finals were Eric Daelman against Kévin Tran, Laszlo Toth against his countryman David Keller, Jop de Jong against Hector Cuadrado and Serra Gümüs (Turkey) against René Dericks.

The four players on the podium, left to right Kevin Tran, Hector Cuadrado, Renë Dericks and David Keller