ET TITLE No.2 FOR SANCHEZ RUIZ
Oct 30, 2021
Dynamic Billiard TURKISH OPEN
Presented by the Turkish Billiard Federation
Day Three – ET TITLE No.2 FOR SANCHEZ RUIZ
FRANCISCO SANCHEZ RUIZ made it two-out-of-two Euro Tour titles as hetook down the Dynamic Billiard Turkish Open presented by the TurkishBilliard Federation with a confident 9-5 victory over emerging youngSerbian player Aleksa Pecelj.
The 29 year-old has been playing on the Euro Tour for the best part of adecade and may have been thinking that elusive title may never come buthe won in August in Slovenia and followed it up today with a string ofimposing performances to become the first man to win consecutive EuroTour titles since Dennis Grabe in 2014.
Perhaps the confidence of winning his maiden title has elevated SanchezRuiz to a higher level and it certainly showed over the past three dayshere at the Venezia Palace Hotel on Turkey’s south coast. In tip-topform throughout, the Spaniard never conceded more than five racks in anyof his matches.
Afterwards he said, “I feel very excited as I didn’t expect to win thistournament but I felt really good and played it round by round so I'mreally happy.
“I'm going to try for a hat-trick in Treviso next month. I know it'sgoing to be tough but I'll give it 100%. It's practice, practice,practice and if you believe in your dream, you can do it!”
21 year-old Aleksa Pecelj make have got second prize but hisperformances these last three days have made plenty of people sit up andtake notice.
Afterwards he said, “I didn’t expect such a good result. I was fightingthroughout the whole tournament. I was losing in every match 5-2, 5-3,but I managed to get to the final. Francisco played amazing pool so hedeserved the win for sure.”
Sanchez Ruiz and Pecelj stepped into the championship match courtesy ofsolid semi-final wins over Marc Bijsterbosch and Mariusz Skonecznyrespectively. However, it was the Spaniard who got the better of theopening exchanges to open up a 3-1 lead in the race to 9, alternatebreak final.
In the fifth game, the Serbian missed a bank on the 2 ball to leave anopen table and Sanchez Ruiz made no mistakes to run out for 4-1. Thatbecame 5-1 as he laid a tight safety on the 1 ball which Pecelj madecontact with but left on.
Pecelj stopped the rot in the seventh as he won against the break andmade it 5-3 following a good safety on the 4 ball and a nerveless runout. Sanchez Ruiz took the next and then downed three off the break toset up an easy run out and take the score to 7-3.
Pecelj wasn’t done and fired back in the next with an excellent run outunder pressure but Sanchez Ruiz reached the hill in the next game as heran out from the break. The young Serbian wasn’t finished as he took thenext to make it 8-5 but with Sanchez Ruiz breaking on the hill, thesigns were ominous.
Another big break from the Spaniard saw four balls drop and the titlewas within his grasp. With no problem balls on the table, he composedhimself and ran through them for his second title in a little over twomonths.
FRANCISCO SANCHEZ RUIZ
The next stop on the Dynamic Billiard Euro Tour is the Treviso Open inItaly, commencing on 25th November.
All the matches can be viewed live at www.kozoom.com
Results, live scoring and draw are available at www.epbf.com
Luke Riches on behalf of the EPBF.