9-Ball
In an exciting winner's round match, World Games Gold Medallist Darren Appleton defeated Alexander Kazakis (GRE) with 9:7 in the second winner's round of the Dynamic Billard North Cyprus Open Euro-Tour.
The story of the match is filled with ups and downs from both players. But Appleton always had his nose a bot in front of Kazakis. In the 8th rack, Kazakis breaks the balls and has no shot on the lowest numbered ball. He plays a decent safety shot. Appleton gets to the table and pockets the object ball over the side rail, running the rack to take a two rack lead with 5:3. A similar situation occurred in the 12th rack. Kazakis broke and again had no shot on the lowest numbered ball. He decided to play a safety shot and, again, come up with a tough situation for Appleton. The Brit fired the 3-ball in over one rail and got himself no position for the 4-ball. Again, he used a rail and sunk the 4-ball in the corner pocket. Finally, he had one blocked ball which was the 6-ball. He also sunk that over one rail into the side pocket and took again a two-rack lead over Kazakis, 7:5. Being on the hill with 8:6 a bit later on in the match, Appleton for the first time broke the balls and did not have a dry break. He had balls down and even a shot at the lowest numbered ball. He had an open table for the match point. He got to the 7-ball when he left that hanging over the corner pocket. That gave second life to Kazakis who probably did not expect to get to the table in that match again. Kazakis cleared the rack and turned the scoreboard to 7:8 with his own break shot coming up. When he broke the balls, the two contestants had a small discussion as to whether enough balls had crossed the headstrong in order for the break to boot be dry. Appleton said that Kazakis played a dry break. After the match, that could be confirmed by the TV pictures. Appleton again had the match point in his hands. He got to the 4-ball this time before he missed a shot. But Kazakis also missed the 4-ball and allowed Darren Appleton back into the table. This time, there was no more room for errors from Appleton. He ran the rack and won the match with 9:7. „I really need to improve my break shot", stated Appleton after the match," I had four out of six being dry". That needs to be improved for him to remain successful in the tournament.
Other notable results from today include Karl Boyes (GBR) losing his opening match with 7:9 to unheralded Onur Yildirim (TUR). In the loser's round, Boyes went ahead and ousted Fabio Petroni (ITA) from the event with 9:6. Petroni had lost to Ali Karafiloglu (TNC) earlier today. Another big upset was Huidji See (NED) losing against Mustapha Tabelsi (TUN) with 8:9.
In the women's division, Jasmin Ouschan (AUT) smashed her opponent Katrine Feijen (DEN) with 7:1. Monika Margeta (SWE) sneaked past Nathalie Seichter (NED) with 7:6.
All results and more info can be found on www.epconline.eu. LIVEStream can be viewed at www.kozoom.com.
The event is hosted by the European Governing Body for Pool, the European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) and organized by International Billiard Promotion (IBP). For further information and reference please go to the federation website www.epconline.eu or contact our press office press@epbf.com.