2011 European Pool Championships

The European Pool Championships are an annual series of pool tournaments for players in Europe which were first held in 1980.[1] The 2011 event was held between 23 March and 3 April 2011 at the Steel Palace in Brandenburg, Germany.[2] The series features events for four disciplines of pool – straight, eight-ball, nine-ball, and ten-ball.[1][2] Every event had a separate tournament for men, women and wheelchair competitors.[1] The event was hosted by the European Pocket Billiard Federation and organised by the International Billiard Promotion.[3]

The tournaments were played as a double-elimination bracket, with players qualifying for a single elimination knockout. Each discipline was played to a different length, with matches in straight pool being played to 125 points in the men's event, and 75 in the women's competition.[4][5] The eight and ten-ball events was played as a race–to–8 rack, with the women's and wheelchair as race–to–6 racks.[5] The nine-ball event was held as race–to–9 racks for the men's and juniors series, with women's and wheelchairs as race–to–7 racks.[6][5] The final and semi-finals of the nine-ball event was broadcast on Eurosport.[7]

Nick van den Berg won the men's nine-ball event.

The event began with the straight pool events held between 24 and 26 March for men and women.[8][9] The quarter-finals of the men's event featured three German players, but were all defeated.[10] In the semi-finals, Tomasz Kapłan defeated Petri Makkonen 125–102 and Fabio Petroni defeated Roman Pruchay 125–73.[11] Polish player Kaplan won the final, the first pole to win the event defeating Petroni 125–17.[12][9] In the women's event, defending champion Jasmin Ouschan reached the final for a second year, and won the event with a 75–31 win over Line Kjørsvik.[9]

The eight-ball event was played between 26 and 28 March. Dominic Jentsch of Germany won the men's event, defeating compatriot Ralf Souquet in the final, 8–1.[13] Dutch player Kynthia Orfanidis had previously reached two semi-finals, but won her first European championship by defeating Finland's Marika Poikkijoki in the women's eight-ball final 6–4.[14] In the first of three wheelchair events, the eight-ball tournament was won by Jouni Tähti, a 5–1 victory over Belgium's Kurt Deklerck in the final.[14]

The nine-ball event was held between 28 and 1 April,[5] with both the men's semi-finals and final broadcast on Eurosport.[15][16] Nick van den Berg defeated Huiji See in the first semi-final 9–7 in a match filled with mistakes, whilst Mario He defeated Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz 9–7.[15][16] In the final, the number one ranked player on the Euro Tour, van den Berg defeated He 11–3.[17][6] Both of the players who met in the final of the women's straight pool final, Ouschan and Kjørsvik contested the semi-final of the women's nine-ball event. Ouschan won again, this time in a 7–0 whitewash of Kjørsvik.[18] In the final she met Gerda Hofstätter who defeated Anastasia Nechaeva 7–4.[18] The all-Austrian final was won by Ouschan, 7–2.[19][20] In the wheelchair event, six-time European champion Henrik Larsson met Tähti in the final. Larsson lead 3–1 and 5–3 before winning the match 7–6 on a deciding rack.[20]

Jasmin Ouschan won three of the four women's events

The ten-ball event was only being held for the second time in the championships and was played between 30 March and 2 April. French player Stephan Cohen met Poland's Radosław Babica in the men's final, where Cohen won 8–6.[21][7] Ouschan won her third event of the championships in the women's ten-ball event, after she defeated Nataliya Seroshtan 6–1.[7] The wheelchair ten-ball event was a rematch of the wheelchair nine-ball final between Larsson and Tähti, with Tähti winning 5–1.[7] Ouschan was the event's most successful player, winning three events, the nine-ball, ten-ball and straight pool. She lost her only match of the championships in the quarter-finals of the eight-ball competition.[7] Tähti won two of the three wheelchair events, losing his only match in the final of the wheelchair nine-ball to Larsson 5–6.[22]

• Official website

• 2011 European Pool Championships at azbilliards.com