Alpina Wellness & Sporthotel
Alpendorf 8 - 5600
Sankt Johann im Pongau
Austria
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Thursday-Saturday 7-9 July 2011
Richard Jones - Great Britain
“It feels absolutely amazing, it’s a dream come true”!
In high class final, Richard Jones crushed Serge Das and won the match with 9:5, becoming the 2011 Dynamic Euro-Tour Austrian Open Champion.
Jones had the far better start and seemed to be much more in gear than Das. He was leading already 3:1 when he executed a perfect jump shot over the entire table, pocketing the 1-ball and getting a tough position for the 2-ball. He also made the 2-ball and ran the rack to take a 4:1 lead over Das. More than that, he showed Das that he was ready for becoming a Champion today.
In the 6th rack, Das broke and scratched. Jones ran the balls… and missed the 7-ball! That did cost him some momentum. “It was a twitch”, said Jones later, “I knew that if I would make the lead bigger and bigger, it would be hard for Serge to come back”.
But Serge Das came back. After the mistake, the match went along and got tighter since Das managed to close the gap a bit. At the score of 6:5 for Jones, Das broke the balls. No ball went in and safeties were exchanged. Das forced Jones to play a foul. He then played another good safe on Jones since the balls were still not open. Jones answered that with a marvellous resafe which forced Das to play a foul shot. Jones ran the rack and took a 7:5 lead. Then Jones broke and ran and went on the hill which probably broke Das’ neck.
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The last rack of the match went like many before. Safeties were handed back and forth but in the end Jones turned out to be the man at the table having a shot at the object ball. He cleared the table and won the match with 9:5 and took the Championship here in Austria.
“This victory makes me very proud. There are several British players who have won a title and I always knew I could join that fine group. Today, this has happened and for me a dream has come true!”
Dynamic Euro-Tour Austria - Das joins Jones in final
Serge Das - Belgium
Serge Das destroyed last Polish hope and sent Sniegocki home
In a match that was determined by one player only, Serge Das (BEL) eliminated Mateusz Sniegocki (POL) out of the event with a clear 9:3 result.
During the entire match, Sniegocki did not seem to get into his game. “I never found my rhythm”, the Polish player said. “It was so frustrating for me. I could not show a good performance. Serge has played much better than me and he deserves the win”, the likable young man states.
In fact, at no time during the semi-final was Sniegocki even close of being a danger for Das. The Belgian player was potting better and missed fewer balls, and his safety shots and escapes were superior to the ones that Sniegocki delivered. “In the end, I am disappointed with losing the match that clearly. But I am also very happy to have achieved a third place finish in the Euro-Tour”, Sniegocki mentioned.
Serge Das will now face Richard Jones in the final match to decide who wears the crown in the Alpendorf today.
Dynamic Euro-Tour Austria - Jones first man for final match
Richard Jones - Great Britain
Richard Jones exits Mark Gray out of the event
The semi-final saw Richard Jones (GBR) defeating Mark Gray (GBR) with 9:7.
The two players know each other fairly well. “It is a tough game. We are roommates for quite some time now. We travel together to the tournaments since we live close to each other in England”, said Gray. Jones added: “Yeah, and it is hard to stay with someone who always finishes higher than you do so I really enjoy it is my time today”.
After Moderator Marko Takis had called both actors into the arena, Gray had the better start. He was probably the favoured player in this match but Jones has proven that he can compete on the highest level. The first two racks fell in the hands of Mark Gray, giving him a small 2:0 lead over Jones. Then Jones benefitted from a poorly executed safety shot from Gray. He ran the balls and opened his account. In the next rack, Gray scratched when he tried to play a safety shot and Jones ran out again, tying the match at 2:2.
As the match went along, Gray played some negligent shots, missed balls and seemed to not be able to find his game. But Jones did and took a sudden 6:3 lead over Gray. “Before I knew it I was 6:3 down and that was probably because we know each other too well and I was not really focussed enough on the match”, stated Gray.
The following racks were determined by Mark Gray trying to catch up with Richard Jones. And he succeeded. He was able to tie the score at 7:7. Then Gray took a timeout. When he came back, he broke the balls but none went in a pocket. Jones approached the table and ran out, leading 8:7.
After that, Jones took a timeout. The same thing happened as in the previous rack. No balls down with an open table left for Gray. But Gray got no position on the 5-ball. However, he pocketed it over one rail, leaving a tough shot for him on the 6-ball. Some safeties were exchanged and Mark Gray got the first chance to pocket a ball. He missed the 6-ball and left it all to Jones. Jones ran out and advanced to the finals, winning the semi-final with 9:7.
“He’s done better than me which is sort of horrible somehow if you’re rooming with someone who always is doing better than you in the latter rounds, so it is nice to once be on the other side of that”, Jones said after the final. “The break is really hard. It is not guaranteed now to make a ball and the pockets are also much tighter. I really like the conditions. They are perfect.” “I would prefer to play Serge Das in the finals since Sniegocki has been in the top finishes too often already. Serge is more like me”.
Dynamic Euro-Tour Austria - Four men left in the field
Mark Gray - Great Britain
More stunners in the quarter final matches
The quarterfinals turned out to be very tough matches for all players even though the results were not that close.
The TV table #24 featured the match between Hubert Lopotko (POL) and Mark Gray (GBR). In the beginning, things really went against Lopotko. After 40 minutes of play, Gray was leading 7:0 and nobody in the audience believed in a comeback of Lopotko. But he himself obviously did. Gray made some mistakes and missed some shots, played some negligent safeties and suddenly the scoreboard showed 7:5 for Gray only. At that time, Gray probably heard the wakeup call and got back to his earlier shape. He made no more errors and won the next two racks which meant the victory in that match for him with 9:5. A clear result for a dramatic match.
Serge Das (BEL) had to deal with Konstantin Stepanov (RUS) and won the match with 9:5. Das, probably the best Belgian player nowadays, took a quick lead in the early stage of the match. Stepanov could not get into his A-game performance while Das managed to make things happening. After Das was leading 5:2, Stepanov was able to pick up two racks in a row which almost brought him to the same result as Das had. But then Das shifted into overdrive and won four out of the next five racks, winning the match with 9:5.
Richard Jones - Great Britain
Serge Das (BEL) had to deal with Konstantin Stepanov (RUS) and won the match with 9:5. Das, probably the best Belgian player nowadays, took a quick lead in the early stage of the match. Stepanov could not get into his A-game performance while Das managed to make things happening. After Das was leading 5:2, Stepanov was able to pick up two racks in a row which almost brought him to the same result as Das had. But then Das shifted into overdrive and won four out of the next five racks, winning the match with 9:5.
Christian Reimering (GER) had to deal with Mateusz Sniegocki (POL) who won the match in the end with 9:4. In the beginning both players played at equal strength. Both have performed very strong during the week and have eliminated some heavyweights on their way into this match. In a matchup that was characterized by tactical play in the beginning, Sniegocki seemed to be the better player when it came to safety play. Consequently, he took a two rack lead and continued to secure that through the match for a while. He was up 3:1, 4:2, 5:3 and 6:4 when suddenly Reimering was not able to win another rack. 9:4 was the final result for Sniegocki who will now face Serge Das (BEL) in the second semi-final match.
In an all English clash on table #7, Richard Jones defeated former World Champion Darren Appleton with 9:7 The match was open at all times and both players presented no gifts to the other one. In the end, Jones turned out to have the better day, winning with 9 racks to 7 over a very frustrated Appleton.
Dynamic Euro-Tour Austria - Sniegocki ousts Melling
Mateusz Sniegocki - Poland
Peach and Hundal also join Melling on his way home
In a very exciting match, Mateusz Sniegocki (POL) eliminated Chris Melling (GBR) from the Dynamic Euro-Tour Austria Open 2011 with a 9:7 score.
The match was characterized by both players having trouble to pocket a ball on the break shot and keep the cue ball under control. Ten of sixteen breaks ended up with no ball down for the shooter. Whereas Sniegocki had four out of eight breaks where he managed to pocket one or two balls, Melling only managed to pocket a ball on one break shot out of seven. That gave a clear advantage to Sniegocki.
However, Melling did not really miss a single shot in the entire match. “I think I played well” Melling said, “the match turned out just to be unlucky for me.”
That was more than true. Everything went according the plan until the score was tied at 3:3. Then Sniegocki tried to hit the 1-ball after a safety shot from Melling. He did contact it, and the 1-ball went in a pocket unintentionally. Sniegocki used this opportunity and ran the rack to take a 4:3 lead over Melling.
The next rack, Sniegocki missed a tough shot on the 8-ball and Melling closed the gap tying the match at 4:4. In the 9th rack, Sniegocki luckily pocketed the 9-ball after playing safe on the 1-ball. His luck was evened out by Melling in the next rack when he fluked the 5-ball in and got to pocket a 3 to 9 combination shot. The score was then 5:5 and both players played at an equal strength, making hardly any mistake and making use of the opportunities that luck and the opponent offered them. As the match continued, both players struggled with their break shot with Sniegocki getting better momentum going. Leading 7:6, Sniegocki played a good combination shot but ended up finding himself in a tough position on the 3-ball. He played a great safe and forced Melling to play a foul shot. With ball in hand, he was able to win the rack and went on the hill leading 8 games to 6.
In the 15th rack, Sniegocki missed a tough 3-ball and left it as tough as it was for Melling who pocketed it and ran the rack to come to a score of 7:8.
He then broke the balls but again no ball went down on the break shot. Sniegocki pockets the 1-ball but misses the 2-ball which falls into another pocket. That was big luck for the Polish.
Sniegocki played a good safe on the 3-ball, forcing Melling again to play a foul shot. Again with ball in hand, Sniegocki ran out and snatched the match with 9:7.
“So far I did not see any player here who was really able to control his break”, Sniegocki stated after the match. “It is very hard here to play good position since the tables are tough to play. I really like this setup”. He then was confronted with the fact that he has now eliminated Souquet and Melling out of the tournament. Who can stop him now? Sniegocki smiles and responds: “I think there are many players here who can still stop me. But I am self-confident. I think I will have my chances”.
Raj Hundal - India
Richard Jones (GBR) ended all Austrian hopes in the event by eliminating Albin Ouschan (AUT) clearly with a result of 9:5. Raj Hundal (IND) fell to the blade Segre Das (BEL) with 6:9.
Other notable results were Mark Gray defeating his fellow British countryman Imran Majid with 9:7. Former World Champion Daryl Peach (GBR) had no chance against Christian Reimering (GER) who presents himself in a very good shape here this week. 9:4 was the result in the end in favour of the German player.
| Rank | Points | Prize-money (Euros) |
| 1 | 550 | 4,500.00 |
| 2 | 480 | 2,800.00 |
| 3-4 | 420 | 1,800.00 |
| 5-8 | 370 | 1,380.00 |
| 9-16 | 330 | 900.00 |
| 17-32 | 300 | 750.00 |
| 33-48 | 275 | 400.00 |
| 49-64 | 230 | Fund 42,020 Euros |
| 65-96 | 200 | |
| 97-128 | 180 | |
| 129-192 | 160 | |
| 193-256 | 140 |
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