Olympic Cup
Stalev takes the title from Stepanov
http://www.souquet.de/ev/news03_ev.htm
57 participants from 8 countries competed at the second edition of the Olympic Cup in St. Petersburg / Russia. Eight 9-fee-tables had been set up for this event in an ice stadium. Due to the unexpected high number of participants, the system was changed on short notice. The event started in a double KO system and with only 32 players remaining, a final single KO bracket was played, a system called „Olympic System“ in Russia. The game was 9-Ball in races to 9 with changing break.
In the first round, I played one of the female participants. The Russian European Championships starter Kristina Suhova played surprisingly well, but missed a few opportunities at the early stage of the match and finally lost 1-9. My second opponent was also a native of the host country. Junior National Team player K. Zolotilov from Moscow, a player not unknown on the EuroTour, was leading during the entire match and seemed to be on the winning streak. When leading already 8-5, he missed the opportunity to win the match and lost position on the second last ball. A badly played safety shot brought me back into the match and I entered the KO stage with a tight 9-8. The draw made me play once more against K. Suhova. The match was quite different from the first one – this time, she only had one single opportunity, but the final score was the same: 9-1. My next opponent was a played I had already played at last year’s edition. M. Kiladze from Moscow did not stand much of a chance and I won 9-3. In the quarter-finals, I played a good game without any mistakes against Mihailov from Russia to win 9-1, but I have to admit that my opponent had a lot of bad luck with his break shots. Three times he lost the cue ball just due to bad luck. For many of the spectators, the semi-final was something like an early final. The clash was E. Stalev vs. R. Souquet. Shortly before the start of the match, the 2001 „Russian Pyramid“ World Champion changed the cue ball. When I asked for the reason, I was told that the cue ball on the table did not match the current set of balls. I agreed and when I was trailing 3-8, I suddenly understood that I had committed a big mistake. For some reason, I lost position after position. The cue ball reacted strangely and when I asked for the ball to be measured, I discovered the reason for this. The cue ball was at least 2 to 3 mm smaller than the object balls and so reacted differently for draw and follow shots. Angrily, I had the cue ball replaced, but it was already too late. I could not turn the match around anymore and lost 4-11. The final was played in a shopping mall. Up to 250 spectators assisted to the match. Defending champion K. Stepanov did not stand the slightest chance against his country fellowman and lost 4-11. At the score of 8-3, the match was interrupted for a few minutes for a fashion show with 5 attractive models, which was a distraction cheered by the major part of the audience.
