WPA World Team Championship

Day Five of the World Team Championships

On day five of the World Team Championships 9ball tournament only the one-loss side was in action. It was certainly a little surprise that Team Netherlands with Niels Feijen and Nick van den Berg have been eliminated from the event by the Japanese team. The Asian squad was up 3:0 as Alex Lely and Huidji See made it 3:2. Feijen played a hill-hill match against Masaaki Tanaka as his opponent run-out the table.

Great Britain 1 had a very easy match against Israel. After four matches everything was already over. At the same time the second British quartet was in the Shoot-Out against Greece and lost it 3:6. useing american cues Serbia also needed the Shoot-Out to finally beat the Czech Republic.

In comparison, Germany (4:1 vs. Croatia), Norway (4:1 vs. Morocco) and Finland (4:0 vs. Slovakia) all had relatively easy jobs as they secured their last 16 places.

Denmark killed the dreams of Team Canadian in a very exciting match. 4:2 was the result after the six matches. Jason Klatt was ahead 6:5 in his 10-Ball match as he missed an easy seven ball. Kasper Thygesen took the chance and ran out both this rack and the next game.

Today also saw the first livestream. Please check out www.cueball-vision.de for all the needed information. For the first time in pool-history there was a field-reporter in action who interviewed the coaches during the matches. Johan Ruijsink from the dutch team was the first "victim" of this very special and interesting world premiere.

Day Four was the day of the favourites at the ongoing World Team Championships. Germany as well as the USA, the Philippines and China had no problems going through to the next stage which is now single elimination format for the last 16 teams onwards.

Germany is still the only team that had not lost a single match after the Greek team with Evangelos Vettas didn't get much of a chance and left the table with a 0:4 loss. The United States won by the same score by beating the guys from Morocco, and the Philippines lost their first point of the event against the Czech Republic but the victory was indeed not at risk.

Sweden and Kuwait certainly created the first surprises of the tournament. The "Tre Kronors" from Northern Europe including Marcus Chamat came out with a 4:2 victory against the "heavy weights" of Great Britain. On the one loss side Kuwait kicked France out of the competition.

The match between the Netherlands and the young-guns from Russia was very thrilling. After 6 games the match was tied and the Shoot-Out had to decide the winner. Both teams scored very fast until it was 7:7, but in the end it was Russia who kept their nerve and made it to the winning post first with a 9:7 scoreline.

Denmark and Switzerland also needed the Shoot-Out to decide their match, and this time the crowd went mad. At the end both teams received standing ovations as Denmark came back four times after matchball for Switzerland. Finally Bahram Lotfy missed so Switzerland went through to the single elimination stage.

Please remember that the team from Cueball-Vision is still recording some matches and you can watch some on their website which is www.cueball-vision.de, and the latest photos can be found on Germany's new Billiard's Magazine "Touch" (www.touch-magazine.net).

Today there was only one session at the World Team Championships in Hannover, Germany, but with Team USA one of the big favorites of the tournament had their first appearance against the French team with Straight Pool Champ Stephane Cohen.

In the 8-Ball doubles France could kept the score even but in the singles matches it was Oscar Dominguez, Corey Deuel and Johnny Archer who decided the match very quickly.

On Thursday evening 6.00 p.m. CET the US-Boys will face the guys from Morocco to go through to single elimination (last 16).

We also saw two Shoot-Outs today. One was Germany 2 versus the United Arab Emirates and the second was between Team Canada and the very young team from Austria. Team Canada was down 1:3 as Jason Klatt and Erik Hjorleifson secured the Shoot-Out. The Austrian guys seemed to get nervous and it was only the youngest player in the team - Mario He - who was successful in the Shout-Out. Team Canada with Alain Martel and Tyler Edey looked very confident and scored one point after another - 6:2 was the final result and Canada went through to the next round while Austria with Jasmin Ouschan are already out of the tournament.

The first big surprise of the tournament almost happened in the German match against the Emirates. Oliver Ortmann and his team-mates needed the Shoot-Out to stay in the tournament. Thomas Lüttich and Dominic Jentsch kept their nerve and made 5 points out of the needed 6.

Starting today the tournament can also be watched on www.cueball-vision.de. You can choose between the match of Germany vs. Serbia from yesterday and today's recording from USA versus France should be online soon. Please check out the website from the people at Cueball Vision.

Meanwhile the exhibitions besides the WTC still goes on and there are between five to ten thousand visitors every day. That is in fact a big benefit for the tournament as there are lots of "non-Billards people" watching the games.

On day two of the world team championships in Hannover, Germany, most of the seeded teams had their first appearance. The Philippines with twice world champ Ronnie Alcano, Germany 1 with the reigning 8-Ball world champion Ralf Souquet and the British team with Darren Appleton finally entered the arena.

But the first highlight of the day was definitely the match between Czech Republic and Korea. After being down 0:3 the guys from Prague had a great comeback and tied the score. So the Shoot-Out had to decide. Korea was up 5:2 and just need one more point but the Czech guys came back again and won 8:6 in a very exciting match.

Meanwhile Denmark also needed the Shoot-Out to win the match against the young guns from Hungary.

In less than two and a half hours the Philippines had won 4:0 against the second team from Great Britain. Every single match was quite close but in the end it was Alcano & Co. to win 4:0.

With the same result the German squad with Thorsten Hohmann and Ralf Souquet reached the next round. Team Serbia had no chance to make a point against the very well supported Germans.

Although the final result of 4:1 for the Chinese quartet sounds quite convincing, clearly the match against Germany 2 was very thrilling for the spectators. Germany went down 0:3 as Oliver Ortmann kept his team alive by beating Li He-Wen 8:6 in 9-Ball. In the final two 10-Ball games Ortmann was up the whole match until he scratched in the deciding game... At the same time Dominic Jentsch was on the winning road after being down 0:4. Too bad for the local heroes from Hannover.

Tomorrow evening 6.00 p.m. CET the US-Boys will enter the tournament. Johnny Archer and his team-mates are in a very good mood and looking forward to their first appearance at the WTC. Straight Pool World Champ Stephanè Cohen and his friends are already waiting for that very promising clash.

Yesterday evening one of the biggest pool tournaments that ever been organised in Europe has got underway. Around 40 teams and 200 players from all over the world registered their entry for the first World Team Championship in Hannover, Germany and 16 of them have already played their first matches.

32 K-Steel II tables have been arranged in one of the biggest halls of the Hannover fair. 16 of them are in an arena for more than 3,000 spectators whilst the other 16 are practice tables in between the billiards exhibition that is also taking place. Besides that there are also two more fairs - one of them is the biggest Harley Davidson exhibition with loads of the most beautiful and for sure most expensive Harleys - so it is guaranteed that thousands of peoples have the opportunity to watch the matches and take a look at the billiards exhibition.

Whilst teams like the Philippines, USA, Germany 1 and also The Netherlands didn't play yesterday the most exciting match was certainly Team Canada versus Germany 2 with Oliver Ortmann and Teen-Sensation Dominic Jentsch. After more than four hours it was finally Ortmann who secured the win for his team against Jason Klatt who failed to finish the match as he missed two shots right at the end.

Jentsch played probably the best match of the whole day as he dominated Tyler Edey with an impressive 7:1 win in 10-Ball.

Besides all this good news about the tournament itself there are also some really bad news about the announced livestream.

The information provided is that there won't be any livestream during the week. It's possible that a team from Cueball Vision (www.cueball-vision.de) will show up soon and record some matches. It is not clear yet how they will be broadcast.