Press release from The World Stright Pool Championships:
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Predator World 14.1 Day 1: Souquet & Stepanov Step It Up East Brunswick, NJ- The battles have begun. Even the most elite 14.1 players would not be able to avoid defeat the first day as titans clashed early on. Russia's Konstatin Stepanov, also ranked #1 currently in Europe, won all three of his matches including a 100- 55 trouncing of legendary Allen Hopkins in which he ran 77 balls. Dennis Hatch suffered a worse beating to Netherland's Van Den Berg 100-18. European 14.1 Champion Niels Feijen demolished Immonen 100-28. Max Eberle defeated fellow USA player Mike Davis .
Some big upsets included local NYC player Michael Yednak defeating Danny Harriman and NYC's Joey Kong win over Germany's strong young gun Nico Otterman. Strong Northeast player Bob Maidhof handed former US Open 14.1 Champ Ralf Souquet a 100- 11 defeat.
Despite a loss, Souquet led the day with the highest run of the tournament with a 101. Hohmann came in second for the day at 100 while Dennis Hatch jumped back from his first loss and managed a 85 and out while Stepanov stayed strong with a 77. Immonen had a 75 while Jasmin Ouschan ran a 74 to tie with John Schmidt's 74 . The top four highest runs of the entire event will receive bonus money with 1st taking $3000. Anyone running 200 balls or more will be awarded an additional $3000.
Other notable matches included a nail biter 100-95 win to Thomas Engert over Charlie Williams. Engert led the match from 56 to -1 and then 90-50 when Williams made a 40 ball run comeback while using a borrowed cue(many players had lost their cues in transit), and made a terrific backwards bankshot in the end but got stuck in the rack at 95-99 in favor of Engert. Fabio Petroni won his first two matches also using a borrowed cue from Thorsten Hohmann.
Tuesday the round robin matches continue and tickets for final day may be bought online at www.dragonpromotions.com
Walk ins are welcome and tickets can be bought at the door.
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Current Top 10 High Runs 1. Ralf Souquet GER 101
2. Thorsten Hohmann GER 100
3. Dennis Hatch USA 84
4. Konstantin Stepanov RUS 77
5. Jasmin Ouschan AUT 74 (tie)
5. Mika Immonen FIN 74 (tie)
7. John Schmidt USA 73
8. Konstantin Stepanov RUS 68
9. Stefan Cohen nothing 64
10. Oliver Ortmann GER 62
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Only two Americans in the current Top 10 despite the USA dominating the entries - And GO JASMIN!!!
[ This message was edited by: BigDave on 2007-07-10 11:08 ]
