IBP Euro Tour Paris

Until the beginning of 2008 it was insecure that the first Euro Tour is going to happen but after a lot of work, the IBP was able to find an organizer in the French capital Paris. The format was the same from last year with only one change concerning the break. After a lot of discussions making the breaking more difficult again, the IBP decided to rack the balls a little higher so that the 9 ball is now on the spot. Although this change brought new breaking conditions it appealed to the players.

Jasmin Ouschan started the tournament with a match against the Italian Pietro Caperna. Ouschan who was obviously not in her game yet made a few mistakes that her opponent could perfectly use for his lead. The once so tight score changed in favour of Caperna and led to a 10:6 victory for Italy. In the one-loss side round Ouschan met Darren Saxby from Great Britain. The young Austrian put in another gear and simply crushed the English countryman with a 10:3 score. The next opponent of Jasmin Ouschan was disqualified from the event and brought her a “walk over” in the second one-loss round. After the energy break Ouschan had to play on the TV table against Ruslan Chinahov. The young Russian, also be nicknamed because of his shotmaking abilities as “Kalaschnikov”, started out with 3 run-outs and seemed to be in the flow. Also the 4^th game went error free, after Ouschan making no balls on the break, to the Russian. Jasmin Ouschan who haven’t had a chance until then stayed concentrated and didn’t let him discomfit her. She countered with 2 run-outs and kept track. She turned around the match and controlled the table until the natural shotmaker started to make mistakes. Ouschan wouldn't let loose and won the match with a 10:6 score. Right after she faced Sebastian Staab from Germany. She managed to go on with a strong performance and took a rapid lead. Jasmin Ouschan was able to put the young German, known from the youth division, under pressure and bring the match with a 10:5 score home. In match Nr.5 Ouschan had to play Vincent Facquet from France. The Frenchman who is known for his fancy trickshot shows, shouldn’t be under estimated in the “normal” game. Ouschan was trailing from the beginning and after a painful mistake at the score of 5:6 for Facquet the gap got bigger and bigger. Jasmin Ouschan who was fighting until the end had to admit her 10:5 defeat and dropped out of the tournament.

„I am actually pretty happy with my performance, only that the place is not perfect yet. At the end I did way to many mistakes and on that high level you get punished for it right away. But now I am looking forward to the WC Qualification which will start after this Euro Tour Tournament. Maybe I can reach my goal then” said Ouschan after the event.

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