The break shot made the difference

Oct 11, 2013

Drago sent Melling to the loser's side

Kyrenia, North Cyprus: In a high quality match in the winner's qualification round, "The Tornado" Tony Drago (MLT) powered past Chris Melling (GBR) with 9:6.
"The Tornado" Tony Drago (MLT)
Melling seemed to struggle to find his game throughout the whole match. He was always behind, trailing one or two points to Drago. "The Tornado" started in his own special way, playing fast and offensive. He even missed an easy 9-ball in the third rack because he did not take his time to get the rest for it. Luckily enough for him, Melling also missed the 9-ball after that and allowed him to still put that point into his account for a 2:1 lead. During the whole match, Drago seemed to have the better role of the balls. His break shot was more consistent than Melling's. In the final statistics, Melling had a total amount of eight break shots where he pocketed balls on six of them, had 2 dry breaks and needed to play a push-out three times. Drago played seven break shots, had a ball down six times and never played a push-out. He did scratch once but in the end, Drago's break shot made the difference for this match. After twelve racks, the match was all square at 6:6. Then, Drago forced Melling to commit a foul shot in rack 13. With ball in hand, Drago ran the rack to take a 7:6 lead. With his own break shot coming up in rack 14, Drago played a runout and went on the hill with 8:6. In rack 15 it was Melling's time to break. Again, he did not get any ball pocketed with his break shot. That finished him for this match. Drago "captured" the table and ran the rack to win the match with 9:6. "The Tornado" smoothly entered the round of the final 32 players while Melling will need another win on the loser's side now.
Other notable results from the winner's qualification round include Fabio Petroni (ITA) sneaking past Ivo Aarts (NED) with 9:8. Nr. 1 ranked player, Niels Feijen (NED) also had hard work with Jim Chawki (SWE) and defeated him by a hair's breadth with 9:8. Nick Malai (ALB) upset all fans of "The Maharaja" Imran Majid (GBR), sending the British to the loser's side with 9:5. Talking about upsets, Ivica Putnik (CRO) defeated EPBF Player of the Year 2012 Nick van den Berg (NED) with 9:4. This tournament promises interesting matches since several favorite players can already be found on the wrong side of the draw.
The event is hosted by the European Governing Body for Pool, the European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) and organized by International Billiard Promotion (IBP). For further information and reference please go to the federation website http://www.eurotouronline.eu or contact our press office.