Gray overcomes Maciol in tough thriller
Aug 2, 2019
In a tight match, Mark Gray (GBR) overcame Daniel Maciol (POL) in winner’s round 2 of the Dynamic Billard Veldhoven Open 2019 with 9:7.
The match started out much better for Maciol than it did for Gray. After three racks, the Polish was leading 3:0 with Gray not having much to say in the match. But then he seemed to find his rhythm and pulled back some racks from Maciol, tying the match at 3:3 after 6 racks. Then the match went along with both players winning their respective racks until the scoreboard displayed 6:6. At that time, Maciol went fir his time out. Maybe he should not have done that because he seemed to struggle with his break shot afterwards. Gray made use of that and capitalised from Maciol’s weakness and went on the hill with 8:6. Maciol managed to pull another rack from Gray before the Brit was able to finish the match with 9:7 over Maciol. That puts Gray into the winner’s qualification round while Maciol needs to go over the loser’s side now.
Another remarkable match was the encounter between Mario He (AUT) and Tobias Bongers (GER). The Austrian was the definite favourite in the match though the German did have some promising appearances in the past. However, He performed totally flawless while Bongers struggled with his break shot. Therefore, Mario He was able to gain an early advantage in the match which he was bale to keep and secure it to the end of the match. 9:4 was the final result which put Mario He through to winner’s round 2 while Bongers went to the loser’s side.
Daniel Maciol (left) and Mark Gray
Some female contestants started their day quite strong this morning. Jasmin Ouschan (AUT) defeated Mats Schjetne (NOR) 9:3 while Valeriia Trushevskaia (RUS) took down Krystian Cwikla (POL) 9:6. Elise Qiu (NED) won 9:6 over her opponent Remy Penmellen (FRA). Kristina Tkach (RUS) was a bit unlucky in her match when she scratched with only the 8-ball and the 9-ball left on the table at a score of 8:8. She attempted to play the 8-ball over one rail with the cue ball remaining safe in case the ball would not go in. but she drew in straight into the corner pocket. So she suffered a narrow 8:9 loss against Johannes Gehe (GER).
Every day, up to two matches will be streamed LIVE over the EPBF Facebook page. Check for updates and announcements.
The Dynamic Billard Veldhoven Open are played in the NH Conference Centre Koningshof in Veldhoven, The Netherlands, on up to 24 tables which are all streamed LIVE throughout the whole event. In order to be able to follow all the action LIVE, premium membership can be obtained at www.kozoom.com. Once a premium membership is held, all events for the respective period of time can be viewed LIVE. Additionally, a huge video gallery is contained in the website.
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 www.eurotouronline.com or visit us on Facebook for regular news clips or contact our press office press@epbf.com.