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Press release "Start"

136 players from 21 nations turned up for this years Salzburg tournament, with many of the players only just returning from the recent European championships in Finland. There is a lot at stake for many players here, not only the Euro-tour prize fund but the positions will give many, direct access to the forthcomming World championships in Cardiff. Francisco Bustamente, making a rare appearance in the Euro-tour, is one of the favorites to take the winners title. Also Oliver Ortmann who just won the European 9-ball title will have a strong claim too. Only one woman, Susanne Lanbach from Austria wanted to try her luck against such a strong field. She was immediatly drawn against Antonio Maimone from Italy and lost 9 to 5, a good performance but now goes to the losers side. With the finals on Saturday at the Airport shopping center, it prommises to be a fine spectical and a fitting end to a lovley tournament.

David Morris

With the tournament in its last day, this was for many players the last chance to book their place in the comming world championships. Needing to produce good results puts added pressure on the players and this was seen here. Tom Storm, needing to finnish high up the rankings, fell at the quater-final stages losing 9-3 to Finlands rising star "Marko Lohtander. Other quater-final matches saw Oliver Ortmann come back to win a thriller 9-8 against Thomas Engert. This set up a semi-final match against Hollands Nick van den Berg who breesed through to the semi`s relatively unchallenged. The other semi-final had Francisco Bustamente against Marko Lohtander. Marko, not letting the reputation of his opponent affect his game at all, he took the match 9-7 and booked his place in his first final from only 7 starts in Euro-tour events. Oliver was still thrilling the crowd with another 9-8 match, only this time on the losing side. Nick van den Berg took an early lead and stayed there for most of the match until Oliver made a dramatic comeback, just like the match with Thomas Engert. Only on his last break, he scratched and Nick made no mistake in clearing the table.
The final saw a one sided match with Nick van den Berg taking it 9-3 and moving up to 3ed place in the rankings. The Saturday matches at the shopping center were watched by a good crowd with many still with their shopping trollys, they showed much interest and clapped as games went by. It was a good atmosphere here at the shopping center and the players lived up to this, with some exciting matches and a good crowd, it was a perfect end to a good tournament

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