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Thursday/Sunday 17-20 November 2016
The European Medallists: Zielinski, Maciol, Hofmann, Dudanets, Pehlivanovic and Khodajeva (left to right)
All photography courtesy of ©Alison Chang / www.alison-chang.com
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Maciol wins the Silver Medal
In an exciting and thrilling final match in the U19 division with China’s Kong De Jing, Daniel Maciol could not get his best performance on the table and lost clearly with 2:11.
Throughout the whole event, Maciol demonstrated high class pool on a solid level. In the final, he missed some makable shots, fell out of position a few times and had an opponent who did not forgive him any mistake at all. Whenever Maciol showed a weakness, Kong benefitted from it and showed no mercy with the Polish. All Maciol’s break did not work for him in the whole match. Kong performed solidly and won the match very clearly but nonetheless deserved with 11:2.
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In the U17, Zheng Xiao Huai (CHN) defeated Temuujin Enkhbold (MON) 8:5. The Gold Medal in the girls division was taken by Chen Chia Hua (TPE) who defeated her teammate Tsai Pei Chun (TPE) 9:8.
Team Europe has totally conquered six medals, one Silver and five Bronze. This year, they could not conquer any title but all in all the performance was more than satisfying.
Photo © Alison Chang
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Kostas Koukiadakis
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Day one provides almost a clean slate
Team Europe has finished a very successful day one at the WPA World 9-Ball Championships for Juniors. Out of 11 matches, 10 victories were taken with only one defeat to be recorded.
In the U17, Sanjin Pehlivanovic (7:0), Fedor Gorst (7:1) and Wiktor Zielinski (7:2) were able to come up with clear victories that were never compromised. The results speak for themselves. Kestutis Zadeikis had some more work to do though. He had a hill-hill thriller with Zhang Fan from China. Zadeikis showed a lot of fighting spirit in his match.
Wiktor Zielinski
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In the final rack, the pressure took its toll and Zadeikis missed an easy 6-ball. However, his Chinese opponent was also nervous and missed the 8-ball thereafter. With a bit of luck and a strong will, Zadeikis got back to the table and took the match with 9:8 in the end.
In the U19, things were not as clear as in the U17. Patrick Hofmann and Kostas Koukiadakis played their first World Championships ever. Hofmann could not find his peak performance in the beginning against his Canadian opponent Walleed Hashem. During the match however, he found his rhythm and took the match in the end with 9:5. Koukiadakis started quite impressively and got a comfortable 5:1 lead over China’s Ding Wei. Suddenly, Wei struck back and pulled rack after rack from Koukiadakis to tie the match after ten racks at 5:5. The pressure was on! Koukiadakis proved to be the one who handled the situation much better than his opponent and consequently overpowered him 9:6 after a tough fight. Maksim Dudanets had no problems with Wu Junjie from China and clearly advanced to the next winner’s round finishing the match 9:3 in his favour. Poland’s Daniel Maciol, last year’s World Champion in the U17 category, played his first match in the U19 today.
Patrick Hofmann
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His opponent, Mi Le from China, was a huge challenge but Maciol made it very clear that he came to Shanghai for a reason. In the early stage of the match, both players ran their respective racks and not many mistakes were committed by either side. As the match went on, Maciol got the upper hand over Le and came out as the deserved 9:5 winner, closing the book on the match.
Diana Khodjaeva
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In the girls division, Diana Khodjaeva had to fight against her opponent as well as her injured shoulder which handicapped her a bit. Despite the pain, Khodjaeva finished Michelle Jiang from the United States 7:4 with a decent performance. Kristina Tkach took no prisoners and destroyed her opponent Vivian Liu (USA) 7:2. The only European defeat of the day had to be accepted by Dina Fatikhova. She played against China’s Ma Jiao. The Chinese opened the match with a beautiful break-and-run and Fatikhova knew who she was up against. She did not let Jiao’s play impress her too much and demonstrated a strong will to come up with her best performance. To her disliking, she missed a makable 9-ball while trailing 3:5. Instead of closing the gap 4:5, she now trailed 3:6 with Jiao being on the hill. That mistake broke her neck in the match and allowed Jiao to snatch the match relatively easy with 7:4 from her. Fatikhova now needs to seek her fortune on the loser’s side while all other European players are still alive in the winner’s bracket.
A great start into the World Championships from Team Europe! Carry on, guys and girls and award yourselves for the hard work you have put in over the last year!
Upcoming matches Friday November 18th:
Wiktor Zielinski (POL) v Kin Ling Yip (HKG)
Fedor Gorst (RUS) v Wang Guangyan (CHN)
Sanjin Pehlivanovic (BIH) v Shen Shenyi (CHN)
Kestutis Zadeikis (LIT) v Luo Li Yuan (TPE)
Dina Fatikhova (RUS) v Emily Herpel (USA)
Diana Khodjaeva (BEL) v Tiangi Shi (CHN)
Kristina Tkach (RUS) v Chen Chia Hun (TPE)
Kostas Koukiadakis (GRE) v Patrick Hofmann (GER)
Daniel Maciol (POL) v Lo Ho Sum (HKG)
Maksim Dudanets (RUS) v Ivan Augustin Brasca (ARG)
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Fedor Gorst
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World Championships claim first casualties
While most European players still have a chance for a Gold Medal, Kostas Koukiakadis and Kristina Tkach have exited the event already today.
In the girls division, team Asia is dominating the field at large. Kristina Tkach lost her winner’s round match to Chen Chia Hua (CHN) 4:7. The same result was valid for Diana Khodjaeva against Shi Tanqi (CHN). That resulted in all European girls being on the loser’s side.
Tkach met her teammate and fellow Russian player Dina Fatikhova in the next round. Fatikhova prove to be the stronger and better player today and finished the match 7:5 to her favour. Khodjaeva managed to stay alive in the Championships with a 7:3 victory over China’s Han Feixue.
Maksim Dudanets
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Both girls need two more victories tomorrow morning to make their way to the quarterfinals of the event. In their next encounters, Fatikhova will play Wu Yu Mei (CHN) while Khodjaeva will need to deal with April Larson (USA).
In the U19, Patrick Hofmann took the European match against Kostas Koukiadakis with 9:6. Maksim Dudanets wiped the floor with Ivan Augustin Brasca (ARG) 9:1. Daniel Maciol fought a fierce fight with Lo Hu Sum from Hongkong and that match went over the full distance. In the end, Maciol was the player with the better nerves and fortunately took the victory 9:8 over his opponent.
Being on the loser’s side, Koukiadakis ousted his first opponent Nicholas Taylor Ridley from Canada with 9:4. Unfortunately for him, this victory did not give him the strength and power needed to survive his next opponent, Zhang Ganting (CHN). The balls did not roll in Koukiadakis’ favour and the final result was 1:9 against the young Greek. That terminates his participation in this year’s World 9-Ball Championships.
Kristina Tkach
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In the next round, the seats for the coveted quarter-final matches were at stake. Hofmann showed a solid performance and defeated Abdullah Sha Alenezi (KUW) 9:5. Also Maciol did not have the problems with his opponent as he had the round before. He won also 9:5 over Nathan Diedrich (USA). Dudanets, who seemed to have not been really challenged so far at all, had to deal with a tough opponent.
He was quickly trailing 3:6 to Ko Ping Han (TPE) and needed to find his way back into the match. Slowly but surely, Dudanets levelled the match and at 8:8, he had the better roll on his side, winning the match in a heartbreaker with 9:8. These results put Hofmann, Maciol and Dudanets in the quarterfinals of the U19.
In the U17, all European boys took their first matches today. In the next round, Sanjin Pehlivanovic dealt with Mongolia’s Temuujin Enkhbold. After both players ran out their first two breaks, the score was 2:2. Then, Pehlivanovic shifted into overdrive and left no chance to Enkhbold, winning very clearly with 9:2. Wiktor Zielinski met Bonaire’s Martis Gyairon in his chance for the quarter-final match.
Sanjin Pehlivanovic
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The match was close in the beginning but Zielinski was the better player in the final stage of the match, winning 7:5. Kestutis Zadeikis came up with another hill-hill thriller against Zheng Xiao Huai (CHN). At 6:6, Zadeikis once again showed nerves of steel and advanced to the quarterfinals, taking the match by a whisker with 7:6. Fedor Gorst unfortunately was not able to follow his teammates on their direct way into the round of the last 8 players. He lost 5:7 to Robbie Capito (HKG) and gets another chance to join the others over the loser’s side.
