Steinway Cafe-Billiards
3525 Steinway St.
Astoria
New York
USA
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19-22 April 2018
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Denis Grabe Takes Down the 2018 Aramith 9-Ball Players Championship
Article - Shirley Ang/WPS
Photography - ©JP Parmentier/WPS
During the third weekend of April, Alex Kazakis of Greece and Denis Grabe of Estonia squared off in the finals of the Dynamic Billiard Ballazzo Open in Austria, with Kazakis besting his 28-year-old friend in the finals, 9-5.
The following week, the two men moved across the Atlantic and met again in the finals of a tournament – the Aramith 9-Ball Players Championship. This time, it would be Grabe evening the score, using a combination of ball pocketing and stellar safety play to easily defeat the young Greek 17-7 Sunday evening at Astoria’s Steinway Billiards.
“I wanted to win because last week we played in an Eurotour event and he beat me. So, this was a sweet revenge,” said Grabe, who also lost to Kazakis in the quarterfinals of the Kremlin Cup last year
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The match was nip-and-tuck in the early stages, as Kazakis won the first two games then watched as Grabe sunk the 2ball on a jump shot following a push out – the first of four consecutive games that he would win to take a 4-2 lead. Kazakis fought back with three straight wins of his own and had a chance to increase his advantage to 6-4 but missed a 4-9 combination shot.
“The turning point of the match was that. After that it was only in favor of Dennis all of the time,” Kazakis said. “I didn’t really have a chance to be at the table. I only had tough shots to make and I missed all of the tough shots.” Grabe would tie the match after the missed combination attempt, then use two breaks and runs along with frustrating safety play to win the next seven games and take an 11-5 lead into the 15-minute intermission.
Of Grabe’s 17 wins only three were of the break-and-run variety despite not executing a dry break the entire match. With few clear shots after opening the game, Grabe had to focus on tying up his opponent with safety play and then taking advantage of any mistakes, which he did throughout the match. “When you’re breaking and you always have the first shot you always have the advantage,” Kazakis said.
After the break in play Kazakis’ frustrations continued. Despite Grabe twice relinquishing control of the table after consecutive illegal breaks Kazakis still didn’t see a clean shot on an object ball – losing a safety battle in one game and missing a cut shot on the one-ball in the side pocket in the next rack. Meanwhile, Grabe used a 2-9 combo, some more safety play, and another miss by Kazakis on a 3-ball in the 24th game to close out the match.
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The Estonian opened the tournament by narrowly escaping Alex Pagulayan 11-10 in the first round then was sent to the one-loss bracket after an 11-9 defeat at the hands of Lee Vann Corteza. Grabe then defeated Ronnie Alcano, Joey Korsiak, and Ruslan Chinahov on Friday to reach the Saturday quarterfinals and face Petri Makkonen. Grabe ran six straight racks on his way to an easy 13-3 defeat of Makkonen, then took advantage of some mistakes from Dennis Orcollo to win 13-8 and advance to the finals.
“I had a couple of matches where I managed to win when I could have lost but in the final, I was like dominant. The scoreline says it all,” Grabe said. It was a disappointing loss for Kazakis, who had many people in the Greek-owned facility cheering him on.
“I’m disappointed that I failed them, but it’s okay. One day I will win this event,” Kazakis said.
On an adjacent table earlier in the afternoon, Albania’s Klenti Kaci defeated Jayson Shaw 11-7 in the Simonis 9-Ball Players Challenge, a second-chance event for players previously eliminated from the Aramith event. After easily defeating Americans Tommy Tokoph and Kenney Nguyen in the early rounds, Kaci survived Germany’s Joshua Filler 9-6 to reach the finals.
The Aramith 9-Ball Players Championship is the first event of the four-tournament 2018 World Pool Series. This event is being held at Steinway Billiards in Astoria, Queens, New York City from April 19th to 22nd, 2018. The World Pool Series is sponsored by Aramith, Rasson, Predator, Iwan Simonis, Tiger, and Kamui. Our suppliers and partners are Billiards Digest, CueScore, Let’s Go Print, On The Wire, Outsville, UpState Al, and the WPA.
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Recap Second Semifinal WPS 1
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Kazakis Looking to Win it for Greece
All weekend long, Alex Kazakis has been saying he wants to win the Aramith 9-Ball Players Championship for his nation as much as for himself.
The host venue for the event – Steinway Billiards in Astoria, Queens – is owned by fellow Greek Manny Stamatakis and Kazakis has competed at the facility about eight times in hopes of winning.
“It’s a Greek-owned place and I never won a tournament here and I really want to. So, I think that made me try harder in this match,” Kazakis said after his semifinal victory over Canada’s Jason Klatt.
He moved one step closer to his goal, defeating England’s Chris Melling 13-8 in the second semifinal of the tournament Sunday afternoon. Kazakis will face Denis Grabe of Estonia in the race-to-17 finals at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Grabe defeated Dennis Orcollo of the Philippines 13-8 in the first semifinal of the day. Kazakis struggled to find his stroke as he and Melling traded games in the match’s early stages.
Desperately wanting to win the match as well as the tournament, Kazakis put additional pressure on himself. Trailing 4-3 he stepped to the table after Melling missed the 7-ball and promptly missed a makeable shot on the same ball, giving his opponent a routine out and a 5-3 lead. With the match tied at seven games each Kazakis looked positioned to run out the rack and regain the lead but missed a slow cut shot on the 3-ball in the side pocket. He slammed his hand down on the table in frustration but also decided to alter his mindset should he return to the table.
“After I missed the 3-ball in the side I said to myself, ‘Don’t think about anything else. Just focus on your stroke. Focus on your game and whatever happens, happens,” Kazakis said. “Don’t give yourself so much pressure to win that match.” His attitude alteration along with a dry break by Melling in the 16th game changed the momentum of the set, with Kazakis running the table to tie the contest at eight and mixed in a pair of breaks and runs to jump ahead. He then added a pair of safety battle victories and another run out to close out the match.
It was a tough loss for Melling, who was bounced over to the one-loss side by Kazakis 11-6 on Friday afternoon. He played as well as Kazakis in the match but struggled with his break shot at times, twice breaking dry and also leaving himself without a shot after the break in a couple of instances.
“It’s very hard to win when you’re not getting a ball on the break or no shot when you do make them, and that was the difference in the match,” Melling said. “I guarantee if I had made the balls on the break that he did I would not have lost.”
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Recap First Semifinal WPS 1
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Orcollo Ousted by Grabe; All European Final Coming Up
Saturday afternoon, Dennis Orcollo felt fortunate to gut out a sudden death victory against John Morra in the quarterfinals of the Aramith 9-Ball Players Championship. He stated after the match at Astoria’s Steinway Billiards that he was having issues with his vision as well as his hand.
The Filipino wouldn’t be as fortunate in Sunday’s semifinals. Plagued with missed shots and some unfortunate rolls, Orcollo was defeated 13-8 by Denis Grabe. “The last two days I didn’t play good. I was missing the ball many times,” Orcollo said. “It’s okay. A lot of times in tournaments you start playing great and finish playing not-so-great.”
“Dennis missed a couple of shots and that gave me the chance to play my game which I successfully did,” Grabe said after the match.
Orcollo got off to a quick start, breaking and running out the first two games and winning three of the first four. After the Filipino missed a jump shot on the 3-ball in the fifth game, Grabe proceeded to win six of the next seven racks. Grabe had a chance to double his lead to 8-4 but pocketed the 8-ball with a bit too much force, sending the cue ball down table where it practically stuck to the 9-ball.
Grabe said he was shaky from the start over the shot and should have sent the ball to the opposite side of the table instead of trying to hold the ball on the same side.
“I played it too hard and it was a silly mistake but I was lucky to get back into the match and was able to win,” Grabe said.
Orcollo was able to mount a rally off of Grabe’s miscue, winning that game and the next two to tie the match at seven games each. It would be the last time Orcollo challenged for the lead. He missed the 3-ball after breaking in the 15th game and watched as Grabe ran out and then won the next five games, building a 12-7 lead. Even Grabe’s misses turned into hits. Facing a difficult angle on the 3-ball in the 18th game he attempted to play safe and watched as the ball disappeared into the side pocket. Left with a sharp angle on the 4-ball, Grabe was able to pocket the ball and finish off the rack.
“I got a couple of rolls, but you need that in pool,” Grabe said. “Overall, I played great.”
After Orcollo pulled to within 12-8 with a 2-9 combination shot Grabe ran out to win the match after Orcollo broke dry. The Estonian will now face the winner of the second semifinal match between Chris Melling and Alex Kazakis. Melling cruised by Fedor Gorst of Russia, 13-7 while Kazakis needed a sudden death shootout to narrowly escape Jason Klatt of Canada in the quarterfinals.
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