Magnificent performance by Stepanov

Nov 7, 2013

Cison di Valmarino, Italy: In the first winner’s round of the Dynamic Billard Castelbrando Open, the winner of the recent Euro-Tour, Konstantin Stepanov (RUS) wiped the floor with Giorgio Margola (ITA), clearly winning with 9:2.
Konstantin Stepanov (RUS)
It was a one man show; and what a classical one. Stepanov played brilliant pool and left no chance for his pitiful opponent. He took his performance from North Cyprus up and performed amazingly strong. Out of his nine racks he ran seven with balls down on 100% of his break shots. Margola could only come up with 40% break efficiency - not enough to endanger Stepanov at all.
One of the few mistakes Stepanov committed occurred in rack four. He ran out of position for the 8-ball and had to try and bank it into the side pocket. He missed and allowed Margola to open his account, still being in front 3:1. In the next rack, Stepanov even scratched on the 2-ball. But Margola was not able to benefit from Stepanov’s mistakes. He played poor positions and got himself in worse and worse situations which led to him making mistakes. Stepanov consequently used his chances and punished Margola for his mistakes in that stage of the match. After nine racks, Stepanov was leading 8:1. He got some momentum going and played like he was not from this planet. In the 10th rack, Margola finally got a ball down on his break. But he only got to the 4-ball which he missed. However, he left a tough shot for Stepanov and the Russian also missed. This time, Margola was able to make use of his chance and scored his second point. But that was his last appearance at the table. Stepanov broke and ran the next rack to take a more than deserved 9:2 victory over Margola.Other notable results from the first winner’s round include Niels Feijen (NED) sneaking past Jonni Fulcher (GBR) with 9:8. Local hero Fabio Petroni (ITA) made short work of Balasz Miko (HUN), creaming him 9:2. Dutch prodigy Ivo Aarts collected his second 9:8 victory of the day. In round one he overcame Juan Carlos Exposito (ESP) while in round two Jani Siekkinen (FIN) was his chosen victim.
All results and more can be seen at www.eurotouronline.eu.
The event will be 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.