Replay Billard Club
6 Rue des Moines Saint Martin
94360 Bry-sur-Marne
France
www.replay-billard.fr
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Thurs-Sun 22-25 September 2016
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Majid taken to the wire but still repeats at French Open
Imran Majid won the French Open by Predator for a second successive year with an 11-10 victory over Marc Bijsterbosch in the final at Replay Billard.
Despite Bijsterbosch reaching the hill first at 10-8, Majid was able to win the last three racks and reclaim the title he first won at the same venue a year before.
This marks the third year out of three that a British player has won the French Open title, while players from France, Belgium, Turkey and the Netherlands also featured at the business end of the tournament.
Majid went home with the winner's cheque for 2,000€, while runner-up Bijsterbosch was awarded 1,000€ for making the final.
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Here is a recap of the scores from the quarter finals onwards and a report on how the final match played out.
Quarter finals
Imran Majid (GBR) 9 - 5 Benjamin Belhassen (FRANCE)
Stephan Cohen (FRANCE) 9 - 5 Alex Montpellier (FRANCE)
Alain da Costa (FRANCE) 9 - 5 Huidji See (NED)
John Abiven (BEL) 1 - 9 Marc Bijsterbosch (NED)
Semi finals
Imran Majid (GBR) 9 - 6 Stephan Cohen (FRANCE)
Alain da Costa (FRANCE) 3 - 9 Marc Bijsterbosch (NED)
Final
Imran Majid (GBR) 11 - 10 Marc Bijsterbosch (NED)
Majid vs Bijsterbosch marked a repeat of last year's final. Coming into the match, Bijsterbosch had the easier ride in his semi final, with a comfortable 9-3 victory over local hope Alain da Costa giving him a longer break.
Meanwhile, Majid had to grind it out against French veteran Stephan Cohen, coming from 4-1 behind to win 9-6. Indeed guest commentator Huidji See told the live stream audience that he saw Bijsterbosch as the pre-match favourite, although of course it was always likely to be a closely fought encounter.
The early stages of the match saw the Brit gain better momentum, opening up a 4-1 lead after Bijsterbosch jumped the cue ball off the table in rack 2 and then scratched on his own break in rack 3.
A big turning point came in rack 6 when Majid was bearing down on the final 4 balls, looking to take the score to 5-1. The table was open, but position was not easy and he ended up hooked trying to get from the 6 to the 7.
He subsequently kicked at the 7 off the bottom rail but failed to make any contact with the object ball, leaving a simple three-ball runout for his opponent to reduce the defecit.
Bijsterbosch won that rack, broke and ran the following and before long had taken six on the spin, bringing the score to 7-4 in his favour. The Maharaja was on the ropes and starting to look less confident, struggling to get a favourable layout after the break and making a few errors. In rack 11 alone, he had miscued on the 3 ball and later missed a good opportunity when let back in.
Still, he drew on his experience to claw it back to 7-7, playing an intelligent rack-winning safety in rack 12, capitalising on a miss by Bijsterbosch in the following rack and then running out from his own break to tie the score.
The two players had been tied at the same scoreline in the previous year's final, before Majid took the final four racks. This time round, however, it was Bijsterbosch who pulled away heading into the final straight. He reached the hill at 10-8 and looked likely to avenge his 2015 defeat.
At 10-9, Bijsterbosch had a golden chance to seal the match and French Open title. After a safety exchange, he fired in a long shot on the 1 and was in pole position to run out the rack. However, he surprisingly missed the 4 ball and let Majid back in to take it to hill-hill.
Bijsterbosch had the advantage of breaking in the decisive rack, but couldn't make it count, coming up with a dry break. The layout was still tricky, with no shot on the 1 and several balls clustered around the racking area.
After a pushout by Majid, each player took attempts at speculative shots on the 1 which neither worked out, nor left an easy opportunity for the opponent. Bijsterbosch then scratched when attempting a safety, leaving Majid ball-in-hand. Although the table still required some precise positional play, he was able to negotiate the runout under pressure and seal the victory.
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All photography used with permission courtesy of ©JP Parmentier
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THE FRENCH OPEN | ||||
EVENT HISTORY | ||||
THE WINNER'S LIST | ||||
 | Karl Boyes R.Up Vincent Facquet (FRANCE) |  | GBR | |
| Imran Majid R.Up Marc Bijsterbosch (NED) | | GBR | |
| Imran Majid R.Up Marc Bijsterbosch (NED) | | GBR | |
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