Up and Running in Sun-Kissed Austria
THE SUN SHONE in St Johann im Pongau as the PREDATOR Austrian Open got underway at the Hotel Alpina Alpendorf. The third event of six in the Predator Euro Tour series, the Open division completed three full rounds of play as 216 players jostled for position. There is a huge German contingent of 66 players […]
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Joshua Filler
THE SUN SHONE in St Johann im Pongau as the PREDATOR Austrian Open got underway at the Hotel Alpina Alpendorf. The third event of six in the Predator Euro Tour series, the Open division completed three full rounds of play as 216 players jostled for position.
There is a huge German contingent of 66 players present in St Johann and the pick of the pack is title-winning machine Joshua Filler. Having won seven of his last nine Euro Tour events, nobody would bet against him taking the trophy home this week, and he got his campaign off to the right start, defeating Lazar Kostic (SRB) by 9-2.
Afterwards, Filler said, “My game is actually good but, in that match, I wasn’t really there at the beginning – I was fighting with the table. It’s kind of humid inside so that makes it kind of tough playing good shape on the table even if it was the TV table which normally slides, but it didn’t slide at all so I was kind of struggling
“It was the first match and the first match is always the hardest because you need to get used to the table but luckily, he also made a couple of mistakes because otherwise I would have lost that match. I still need to work on the break – the cueball wasn’t really centre table but I’m just glad that I won that match as it could have gone the other way.
“Of course, my game is there to win any tournament but you always need luck on your side and it’s a stacked field. I don’t look on winning the event, I just want to find a good game. I’ve had two matches this year that I’ve lost even though I played a perfect match so it can happen. I’ll work on all the things I haven’t done right in this match and we will see – maybe I can lift the third one in a row,” he concluded.
Among the 24-strong contingent of Austrian players, Mario He is a front-runner for success this week and he enjoyed two victories to advance. Firstly, he beat Dzmitry Hryb (POL) 9-4 and then took down Portuguese veteran Jorge Tinoco by 9-3 and advances to Winners Round 2 tomorrow morning where he faces dangerous Swedish youngster Walter Laikre.
He said, “It always feels good playing in Austria. I had two tough matches but won them pretty easily – the score didn’t really say the truth. The weather could be better as I like to play when it’s not really sunny but I always enjoy playing here.
“It’s always the aim to win the tournament but I don’t really think about winning it, I just try to play good, hopefully go deep and maybe win it,” he added.
Play continues in the Predator Austrian Open on Friday morning at 9.00 with Winners Round 2 and One-Loss Round 2. The Women’s Predator Austrian Open, with 64 entrants, gets underway on Saturday at 9.00, playing down to the final which takes place at 17.00 on Sunday. Races are to 7 for double elimination, and then 9 for single elimination. Both events operate a two-racks alternate break system.
This year sees a new streaming platform for all Euro Tour and European Championships events.
Table 1 and 2 will be streamed throughout on YouTube, via the Pro Billiard TV channel – https://www.youtube.com/@ProBilliardTV
For all results, live scoring and draw, visit https://www.epbf.com/tournaments/eurotour/information/
EPBF Sponsors
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▸ Longoni Cues
▸ Kamui Brand
