Eronen Sampo wins Baribal Open, Estonia, Tallinn

Finnish player Eronen Sampo wins the Baribal Open with a 9-2 victory over the swedish junior star Jim Chawki (16 years old)!

In the semis Sampo defeated Konstantin Stepanov 9-8, and Jim won over Aki Heiskanen 9-5. Congratulations to all medalists!

Great Britain and Russia winners of Nations Cup 2009

Team Great Britain (Darren Appleton, Karl Boyes & Imran Majid) won the Nations Cup for men 2009!

In the last round team Great Britain faced another great team - Team Russia (Ruslan Chinahov, Konstantin Stepanov & Egor Plishkin), but they managed to win the match comfortably. Darren Appleton won his straight pool match against Konstantin Stepanov 125-59, Imran Majid won over Ruslan Chinahov in an exciting third set, and thus the victory was secured and Karl Boyes and Egor Plishkin left their match tied at 1-1 in set.

The Nations Cup for women were won by Team Russia (Olga Levina & Darya Sirotina), by defeating team Germany (Janine Schwan & Anja Wagner) in the finals.

Nations Cup is an EPBF-event this year held in Kielce - Poland. The mens teams consists of three players: one player plays straight pool, one plays 8-ball and one plays 9-ball - in each round. The straight pool match is a match first to 125 points, the 8-ball match is played in three sets - first to 4 points and the 9-ball match is also played in three sets - first to 5 points. The womens teams consists of two players: one player plays 8-ball and one plays 9-ball, and if the score is even a shoot-out game will be played.

Updates on Twitter

Hi dear friends of all kinds of cuesports!

I've been really lazy with my updates for a while. Now a father of two wonderful kids, and also a poolhall owner, so I've been kind of busy. Anyhow I'll try to find some time for updates about what's happening on the european billiardscene.

From now on I'll be using Twitter (se right column) for short updates, and upcoming events. Do you have some information you think shold be published on this page, please drop me a line!

Torvald

Team Europe wins Mosconi Cup for second year in a row!

Team Europe won over Team USA for the second year in a row, with 11-5. Congratulations!

Every year Team Europe and Team USA battles in the Mosconi Cup. This year the event took place on Malta (for the first time). This also means the even will be held i Europe next year.

With the lead 10-5, Mika Immonen, Europe were up against Shane van Boening. And with a 5-3 victory Immonen sealed the deal for Europe.

This years team Europe:
Ralf Souquet
Niels Feijen
Mika Immonen
Tony Drago
Mark Gray

This years team USA:
Earl Strickland
Johnny Archer
Rodney Morris
Jeremy Jones
Shane van Boening

Read more about the event here:
- Mosconi Cup
- Matchroom Sport

Daryl Peach wins World Championship in 9-ball!

Daryl Peach became the first player from England to win the World Pool Championship. Having been playing well all tournament Peach finally won over phillippino player Roberto Gomez.

Gomez is the first qualification player ever to make it to the final. A humble Peach says Gomez played the best pool in the tournament until the final. Though in the final the nerves and the pressure made both players make a couple of uncharacteristic errors.

At 15-15 Peach missed a bank on the 9-ball. But then Gomez missed an open shot on the nine before Peach was able to sink it and reach the hill 16-15. In the last rack Peach won a safety battle and then run out securing victory at 17-15!

Read more here:
- Worldpoolchampionship
- Azbilliards
- Insidepoolmag
- Pro9

Ronnie O'Sullivan wins the Masters

Ronnie O'Sullivan bet Ding Junhui in the final of the Masters 10-3. Knowing he had to perform at his best to beat chinese 19-year old snookerstar Ding Junhui Ronnie O'Sullivan did just that. Four centuries (highest 143), two 90+ breaks and outstanding performance from O'Sullivan got the better of Ding Junhui. Ding was also clearly out of balance in the later stages of the match, seemingy disturbed by the loud audience at the Wembly.

Ronnie O'Sullivan has once again why he's considered the best snookerplayer in the world by so many fans. O'Sullivan also gave a lot of credit to Ding Junhui as a player in his interview with Steve Davis after the match.

The Masters - Final

Today we'll se the final in the Masters between Ding Junhui and Ronnie O'Sullivan. Ding Junhui beat Stephen Hendry in the semifinal 6-2. Ronnie O'Sullivan bet Stephen Maguire 6-4. O'Sullivan who weren't satisfied with his standard of play, says in an interview he has to raise his game in the final (www.worldsnooker.com). Having seen both matches I must agree. I hold Ding as a quite big favourite to win the title.

Feijen wins The 8-Ball Battle of Scandinavia

Niels Feijen wins The 8-Ball Battle of Scandinavia in Oslo (Norway) over 17-year old Artem Koshevyy!

Niels Feijen beat Mick Hill in one of the semifinals, Artem Koshevyy beat Ralf Souquet in the other semifinal. Congratulations to both, and a special congratulations to Artem who I got the oppertunity to practice with a couple of month ago when I were training for Jorgen Sandman in Malmo. A very talented young player and also a very nice guy.

The format of the tournament were first group stage, matches to 5, alternating breaks. From last 32 best of 5 sets first to 3 points, alternating breaks.

Read more about the torunamnet here:
pro9.cu.uk

The Masters - semifinals

The Masters are now down to four players.

19-year old Ding Junhui from China beat Stephen Lee in the quarterfinal (6-2) had a good chance to become the first player ever to score two maximum breaks in the same tournament. He came up a little short with only two more reds on the table. He ended with a decent shot on the black but hit the pink so it came close to the cushion. Trying to get a perfect angle on the last red to move the pink he ended up missing the black... Exciting though!

Ronnie O-Sullivan bet Ken Doherty who at the scoreline 5-5 got a bad hit on the white and missed with an open table - and O'Sullivan took care of the opportunity. Overall a very well played match.

Stehphen Maguire won over Neil Robertson in the tournaments probably most shaking quarterfinal. Maguire seemed to have some troble getting over the finish line and Roberson got several chances. Though Robertsons attacking game wasn't working and that gave Maguire the chances he needed to finish the match 6-2.

Shaun Murphy who seem to have found his form were struggling in the match against Stephen Hendry. Both players seemed to have problems controlling the white ball (my guess is somethin in the conditions of the table changed). The match finished 6-3 to Hendry.

Semifinals:

• Stephen Maguire vs Ronnie O'Sullivan
• Stephen Hendry vs Ding Junhui

The Masters

The Masters (The Saga Insurance Masters, formerly the Benson & Hedges Masters) is now running. The Masters is not a ranking event but one of the most prestigiuos titles in snooker with a lot of price money. The tournament is an invitation event, where 19 players are invited. The top 16 in the ranking are automatically invited. One place goes to the winner of a qualifying tournament (Stuart Bingham), and two players are invited by the tournament board (Jimmy White and Ding Junhui). Those three players have to play preliminary matches against seeded player 14, 15 and 16 to advance for the first round in the 16-player single elimination tournament. Read more about the tournament at Wikipedia.

19-year old Ding Junhui became the youngest player ever to score a televised maximum break (147) in the match against Anthony Hamilton (6-3). Junhui yesterday contiuned on his eventual way to victory beating Peter Ebdon (6-3). He now faces Stephen Lee in the quarter final. Sthephen Lee won over current World champion Graeme Dott (6-2). Today we'll se the matches for Quarterfinal 3. The winner of the match Stephen Hendry vs Matthew Stevens will meet the winner of Shaun Murphy vs Steve Davis.

The Quarterfinals:

1. Stephen Maguire vs Neil Robertson


2. Ronnie O'Sullivan vs Ken Doherty


3. Stehpen Hendry/Matthew Stevens vs Shaun Murphy/Steve Davis


4. Ding Junhui vs Stephen Lee

Read more about the tournament here:

• Tournament hompage


• BBC Sport/snooker


• Eurosport