THE FINAL EVENT of 2022 on the Dynamic Billard Euro Tour gets underway tomorrow, Friday, as 230 players representing 36 countries gather at the Best Western Premium BHR Treviso Hotel in the northern Italian city of Treviso for the Dynamic Billard Italian Open. With No.1 ranked player Francisco Sanchez Ruiz and No.3 Joshua Filler absent this week on Mosconi Cup duty, it gives the No.2, Wiktor Zielinski, the opportunity to usurp the top spot.
The 21-year-old Pole has just returned from a successful spell in the USA which culminated in a runners-up spot and silver medal at the WPA Predator World 8-Ball Championship which concluded earlier this week. In fact, European players occupied seven of the eight quarter-final spots in what was another terrific week for European pool.
Despite a recent gruelling schedule, Zielinski was full of the positives; “It definitely went well. The beginning of the trip was not so easy; 33rd place at the US Open and the same at the Ohio Open. But then everything started working for me. Even though I lost four big finals on this trip, I would have taken that blind. Overall, I was very happy with my results and I can only take positive things from it.”
With No.1 ranked player Francisco Sanchez Ruiz missing the Italian Open, it gives Zielinski the opportunity to move to No.1 but he needs to reach the last four here in Treviso to achieve that.
“As always, I will try my best to win the tournament. But this one will be tough I guess, because I always struggle for a couple of days with jetlag coming back from US. To be honest it would be nice to be Number One, but I’m not thinking about this that much.”
After Treviso, Zielinski can look forward to a well-earned rest after a highly-productive two months of competition, “I can’t wait to have some rest finally after this exhausting six-week trip around the US. I think going deep motivates me and boosts my confidence which is good for me. Trying to stay fresh is always tough as pool players have to travel almost every week.”
With 20 tables in operation this week, the tournament adds an extra day, commencing on Friday instead of the usual Saturday. Matches commence at 9.00am local time, with the semi-finals and the final taking place on Monday evening, 28th November.
As well as the prize money, there are Tour ranking points on offer as well as world ranking points, so there is everything to play for. All Euro Tour tournaments are 9-ball and players compete in a double-elimination format, playing down to the last 32 competitors, and then single elimination until the finish. All matches are races to 9 racks with alternate break.
All the matches can be viewed live at www.kozoom.com as well as selected matches on Facebook Live on the EPBF page. In addition, the semi-finals and final, played out on Monday night, will be live or highlights on the following television stations across Europe;
SportKlub HD – Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Greece
Eyecons – Netherlands
SportKlub – Poland
ORF – Austria
B1B Box – Bulgaria
Results, live scoring and draw are available at www.epbf.com