Replay Billard Club
6 rue des Moines Saint Martin
94360 Bry-sur-Marne
France
Tel: 01 47 06 44 84 -
www.replay-billard.fr
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Fri-Sun 16-18 October 2105
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Cohen triumphs in Kamui Battle hill-hill thriller
French number one Stephan Cohen took down the Kamui Battle challenge match by the finest of margins, with a 15-14 victory over Nick van den Berg last night at Replay Billard in the suburbs of Paris, France.
Willed over the line by French pool fans, Cohen was able to make the home advantage count, with some important runouts in pressure situations. His victory came just five days after he won the first French national tour event of the season in the same venue.
Cohen takes the 1,000€ prize as winner of the Kamui Battle, which was streamed live by Ebilliard and will be uploaded to YouTube shortly.
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Missed opportunities cost van den Berg as Cohen handles pressure to take victory
Although van den Berg came into the match as favourite in the eyes of many, he struggled in the opening stages, with several uncharacteristic errors including an easy 7-ball in rack 3 and a missed 9 for what would have been a break and run in rack 5.
Cohen had opened up a 5-0 lead by the time van den Berg started to find his rhythm, with three consecutive clearances reducing the defecit to two. However, he soon found himself five racks down again at 8-3, after playing himself into trouble in rack 11. Hooked behind the 5-ball, van den Berg was forced to shoot away from the object ball, kicking into the bottom rail and back up the table using the rest. Although he made contact with the object ball and nearly made it, he left a hanger for Cohen, who duly ran out.
From 8-3 down, van den Berg was then able to win seven consecutive racks to take the lead for the first time in the match. Cohen was making balls on every break but was repeatedly left with no shot after the break, forcing him to push out or play a tricky safety each time. Van den Berg played some impressive safeties during this sequence of play, forcing Cohen to foul on three occasions.
Cohen finally stopped the rot in rack 19, clearing up after van den Berg scratched on the break. He then followed up in rack 20 with his first break and run of the match to level the scores at 10-10. Van den Berg hit back immediately with a golden break, the 9 kicked fortunately into the left-hand side pocket. Cohen then made three balls on his own break and cleared up for his second consecutive break and run.
In rack 23, van den Berg made four balls on the break, but overran a positional shot and then missed a cut on the 6-ball into the bottom right corner. The opportunity to take the lead went begging and Cohen was able to snatch the rack, clearing the remaining three balls to go up 12-11.
In the latter stages of the match, the racks became tighter, with some tricky layouts after the break and tense safety exchanges, particularly in rack 24. Van den Berg took a risk in splitting up a three-ball cluster around the foot spot but left himself hooked on the 3-ball. He managed to recover by playing an effetive 2-rail kick safety and, when Cohen played a poor counter-safe, van den Berg was able to run out.
Van den Berg will rue several missed opportunities in the closing racks. In rack 26 he attempted to roll in a 2-ball from medium-distance due to awkward cueing off the rail. His miss on that shot, followed by a miss on the 3-ball in the next rack when swerving the cue ball, allowed Cohen to reach the hill first at 14-13.
Van den Berg dug deep in rack 28 with a critical safety after Cohen's pushout. Cohen was unable to execute a jump shot on the 1-ball and van den Berg took advantage, forcing a final-rack decider.
Even in the final rack, van den Berg had an open table in front of him after a miss from Cohen on the 1-ball, trying to play difficult position to the next ball. Van den Berg surprisingly missed the 4-ball and Cohen managed an impressive runout under pressure, clenching his fist in victory after sinking the winning 9-ball.
Cohen must surely now rank as one of the favourites for the weekend's 2015 French Open by Predator main event. Van den Berg will also have the chance to atone for this defeat when the 64-man tournament gets underway on the afternoon of Saturday 17th October.
The 2015 French Open by Predator will be streamed live on Ebilliard (www.ebilliard.tv) on Saturday 17th October and Sunday 18th October. Tournament live scores and brackets can be viewed at ebilliard.billiardport.com.
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