The 2011 European Pool Championships was a series of professional pool championships that took place at the Steel Palace, in Brandenburg, Germany. The events were played between 23 March and 3 April 2011 were part of the European Pool Championships; and featured events for men, women and wheelchair players across four pool disciplines:

straight Pool Straight pool, which is also called 14.1 continuous and 14.1 rack, is a cue sport in which two competing players attempt to as many billiard balls as possible without playing a . The game was the primary version of pool played in professional ...

eight-ball Eight-ball (also spelled 8-ball or eightball, and sometimes called solids and stripes, spots and stripes or rarely highs and lows) is a discipline of pool played on a billiard table with six pockets, cue sticks, and sixteen billiard balls (a ...

nine-ball Nine-ball (sometimes written 9-ball) is a discipline of the cue sport pool. The game's origins are traceable to the 1920s in the United States. It is played on a rectangular billiard table with at each of the four corners and in the middle of e ...

, and ten-ball. The tournament was hosted by the European Pocket Billiard Federation and organised by the International Billiard Promotion, with the final of the men's nine-ball event broadcast on Eurosport. Austria was the most successful nation, winning three events – all by

Jasmin Ouschan Jasmin Ouschan (; born 10 January 1986) is an Austrian professional pool player from Klagenfurt, Carinthia. Her first professional competition occurred in 2002, but she did not officially become a professional member of the Women's Professional ...

Jouni Tähti Jouni Tähti (born 4 April 1968) is a Finnish disabled professional pool player. He is a five-times world champion in 9-ball wheelchair billiards, having won the competition in 2002, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2013. He won the silver in 2012 and the b ...

won two of the three wheelchair events, losing just one match in the final of the nine-ball tournament to

Henrik Larsson Edward Henrik Larsson (born 20 September 1971) is a Swedish professional football coach and former player, formerly an assistant manager of Barcelona. Playing as a striker, Larsson began his career with Högaborgs BK. In 1992, he moved to Hels ...

Overview

The European Pool Championships are an annual series of pool tournaments for players in Europe which were first held in 1980. The 2011 event was held between 23 March and 3 April 2011 at the Steel Palace in Brandenburg, Germany. The series features events for four disciplines of pool – straight,

, and ten-ball. Every event had a separate tournament for men, women and wheelchair competitors. The event was hosted by the European Pocket Billiard Federation and organised by the International Billiard Promotion. The tournaments were played as a double-elimination bracket, with players qualifying for a single elimination knockout. Each discipline was played to a different length, with matches in straight pool being played to 125 points in the men's event, and 75 in the women's competition. The eight and ten-ball events was played as a –to–8 , with the women's and wheelchair as race–to–6 racks. The nine-ball event was held as race–to–9 racks for the men's and juniors series, with women's and wheelchairs as race–to–7 racks. The final and semi-finals of the nine-ball event was broadcast on Eurosport.

Tournament Summary

The event began with the straight pool events held between 24 and 26 March for men and women. The quarter-finals of the men's event featured three German players, but were all defeated. In the semi-finals, Tomasz Kapłan defeated Petri Makkonen 125–102 and

Fabio Petroni Fabio Petroni (born 30 March 1972 in Rome, Italy) is an Italian professional pool player. Career Fabio Petroni was born in 1972 in Rome, Italy and began playing billiards when he was 13 years old. In 1993, he became the first Italian champion ...

defeated Roman Pruchay 125–73. Polish player Kaplan won the final, the first pole to win the event defeating Petroni 125–17. In the women's event, defending champion

reached the final for a second year, and won the event with a 75–31 win over

Line Kjørsvik Line Kjørsvik (born December 29, 1975) is a Norwegian professional Pool (cue sports), pool player. Kjørsvik is a regular player for the Women's Professional Billiard Association, WPBA-Tour in America. At the European Pool Championships Kjørsvik ...

. The eight-ball event was played between 26 and 28 March. Dominic Jentsch of Germany won the men's event, defeating compatriot Ralf Souquet in the final, 8–1. Dutch player Kynthia Orfanidis had previously reached two semi-finals, but won her first European championship by defeating Finland's Marika Poikkijoki in the women's eight-ball final 6–4. In the first of three wheelchair events, the eight-ball tournament was won by

, a 5–1 victory over Belgium's Kurt Deklerck in the final. The nine-ball event was held between 28 and 1 April, with both the men's semi-finals and final broadcast on Eurosport. Nick van den Berg defeated Huidji See in the first semi-final 9–7 in a match filled with mistakes, whilst

Mario He Mario He (Born 3 August 1993, Rankweil, Austria) is an Austrian professional pool player. He is a former winner of the European Pool Championships, and winner of both the 2017 and 2019 World Cup of Pool events alongside Albin Ouschan. Career ...

defeated Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz 9–7. In the final, the number one ranked player on the

Euro Tour The Euro Tour is a series of professional pool events set around Europe, founded in 1992, and created by the European Pocket Billiard Federation. The Tour's first event was the ''Belgium Open'', held on May 29 – 31, 1992. The event was won by M ...

, van den Berg defeated He 11–3. Both of the players who met in the final of the women's straight pool final, Ouschan and Kjørsvik contested the semi-final of the women's nine-ball event. Ouschan won again, this time in a 7–0 whitewash of Kjørsvik. In the final she met

Gerda Hofstätter Gerda Hofstätter Gergerson (born 9 February 1971), nicknamed "G-Force", is an Austrian professional pool player. Hofstätter won the WPA World Nine-ball Championship in 1995. She is a winner at the European Pool Championship on nine occasions, ...

who defeated

Anastasia Nechaeva Anastasia Nechaeva (born 9 May 1993) is a Russian snooker and pool player. She was runner-up in the 2014 and 2015 IBSF World Snooker Championships. Playing career Nechaeva had success in pool as a teenager, including winning the 2009 European ...

7–4. The all-Austrian final was won by Ouschan, 7–2. In the wheelchair event, six-time European champion

met Tähti in the final. Larsson lead 3–1 and 5–3 before winning the match 7–6 on a . Jasmin Ouschan2

The ten-ball event was only being held for the second time in the championships and was played between 30 March and 2 April. French player Stephan Cohen met Poland's

Radosław Babica Radosław Babica (Born 18 July 1979) is Polish professional pool player from Kielce, who reached number 12 in the World Pool-Billiard Association world rankings in 2009. Career Babica final reached the European Pool Championships final of the ...

in the men's final, where Cohen won 8–6. Ouschan won her third event of the championships in the women's ten-ball event, after she defeated Nataliya Seroshtan 6–1. The wheelchair ten-ball event was a rematch of the wheelchair nine-ball final between Larsson and Tähti, with Tähti winning 5–1. Ouschan was the event's most successful player, winning three events, the nine-ball, ten-ball and straight pool. She lost her only match of the championships in the quarter-finals of the eight-ball competition. Tähti won two of the three wheelchair events, losing his only match in the final of the wheelchair nine-ball to Larsson 5–6.

Results

References

External links

* {{AZB, https://www.azbilliards.com/tours_and_events/184-european-pool-championships/ 2011 in cue sports 2011 in German sport International sports competitions hosted by Germany European Pool Championships