Laetitia Dos Santos (FRA) - Photo: EPBF/DK 

Not all defending Champions win their opening matches

Friday, 23 March 2012: Laetitia Dos Santos (FRA) showed no mercy and steamrolled her opponent Katarzyna Wesolowska (PO) with 6:1.

The match was completely determined by Dos Santos. From the very beginning, she seemed to be more focussed than Wesolowska. In the second rack, Dos Santos broke and came up dry. Wesolowska pocketed all balls and scratched avoidably on the 5-ball. Does Santos accepted the gift and took a 2:0 lead. That continued throughout the whole match. While Wesolowska was struggling to find her game, Dos Santos got stronger and stronger and even started to run out complete racks like in the 4th rack. At a score of 4:0 in favour of the French, Wesolowska managed to get her “consolation game”. She benefitted from a bad safe from Dos Santos and it looked like she was getting in stroke a bit better. But the very next rack destroyed that hope. She missed the 1-ball two times and Dos Santos was on the hill, leading 5:1. In the 7th rack, Dos Santos ran out of position on the 8-ball but played a lucky safe. Wesolowska fouled and Dos Santos took the rack to win the match with 6:1.

Other notable results include the defending Champions all winning their opening match. Jasmin Ouschan (AUT) handed a doughnut to Sara Roche (POR) and won clearly with 6:0. Stephan Cohen (FRA) defeated yesterday’s bronze medallist Denis Grabe (EST) with an impressive 8:3. In the wheelchair division, Jouni Tahti (FIN) got defeated by Fred Dinsmore (IRE) with 3:5.

The event is hosted by the European Governing Body for Pool, the European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) and organized by International Billiard Promotion (IBP). For further information and reference please go to the federation website www.epconline.eu , follow us on twitter @EPBF_News or contact our press office.