THINGS HEATED UP in Italy as the second day of the DYNAMIC BILLARD Treviso Open unwound at the Best Western Premier BHR Hotel in the northern Italian city. From a starting line-up of 198 competitors, there are 116 players still standing and play resumes on Sunday with three rounds on the one-loss side followed by winners’ qualification and then losers’ qualification
Rampaging through the Euro Tour of late is Joshua Filler who is looking to claim his fifth title on the spin this week. The German maestro made light work of Quinten Pongers (NED) to take his place in the winners’ qualification round.
Filler has claimed seven Euro Tour crowns in his career which puts him in sixth position overall behind Engert (9), Van Den Berg (10), Feijen (11), Ortmann (14) and Ralf Souquet, way ahead on 23 titles.
Commented Filler, “Honestly, when I started playing the Euro Tour, my dream was first of all winning one of them but recently, I’m now at four in a row and I just want to extend that. If you look at Ralf with 23 titles, I think it’s really hard to catch him, I’m just thinking about doing something special now so if I could do the fifth one in a row, that would be something crazy and that’s in my mind right now.
“I’m in good form at the moment and I just want to play as good as I can. Sometimes you win, sometimes it’s not enough. It would be great to have the best record and if I keep going like that, the way I play, the way I break, it’s hard to beat me but when you go into the single knock out stage and make a couple of mistakes you can be out, because the field is always so tough but I’m well prepared and feeling good and I always enjoy playing pool for a living. As long as you’re healthy, you’ll be lucky,” he added.
With increasing former European Junior medallists making headway on tour, another young star making tremendous strides is Germany’s Yuma Dorner. He beat fellow German junior Felix Vogel 9-7 to advance to the next round. Dorner is currently at No.10 on the Euro Tour rankings, a reigning European U23 9 Ball champion and is on a clear upward trajectory.
He said “My usual goal which I want to reach at every Euro Tour is last 32, but I’ve never been to the last eight yet. A few times last 16 but never more. I’m still hoping for a last eight finish but that’s a lot to wish.
“Felix is a very difficult opponent as I’ve known him for years and I don’t like playing against someone that I like and he’s a very good young player and very scary. Of course, the pros like Josh (Filler) are always very difficult to beat but that’s what I’m here for, to play against the big guns and try and learn.”
He can look forward to a match-up against home hope Daniele Corrieri in the winners’ qualification round on Sundayafternoon.
The highest ranked Italian player competing this week is Frank Candela who sits at No.23 on the rankings. The only Italians to have entered the winners’ circle on the Euro Tour are Fabio Petroni, twice, and Bruno Muratore and despite going down 9-5 to Germany’s Niklas Dohr he lives to fight another day, albeit on the one-loss side.
Commented Candela, “I played a not-good-enough safety game. I missed two or three safeties and then in the second half of the match my break didn’t work. Honestly, Niklas deserved the win as I missed just one ball and he played perfectly and that’s all. I just focus on my game try and enjoy it and play my best. I’ve got three matches to win for the last 32 and really, I enjoy playing more matches in one day so hopefully tomorrow I’ll have a chance to reach the last 32.”
Play resumes on Sunday morning 10.30 local time with Round 3 on the one-loss side. The first round on the winners side is the qualification round at 15.00.
As well as the prize money, there are Tour ranking points on offer, so there is everything to play for. All Euro Tour tournaments are 9-ball and players compete in a double-elimination format, playing down to the last 32 competitors, and then single elimination until the finish. All matches are races to 9 racks with alternate break.
The Euro Tour Women EPBF Treviso Open is down to the last 16 and plays to a conclusion tomorrow with the final taking place at 16.30.
All the matches can be viewed live by visiting www.epbf.com/tournaments/eurotour/ and clicking on the ‘LIVE’ button. This will take you through to viewing options. In addition, selected matches will be streamed on Facebook Live on the EPBF page.
Results, live scoring, and draw are available at www.epbf.com