Engert Excitement at World Pool Championships

Engert Excitement at World Pool ChampionshipsAfter three days of intense competition, 16 of the world’s best players gave way to Thomas Engert of Germany as he took the World Pool Championship. Adding this to his list of current titles, Engert can now boast of four big wins this year: The Challenge of Champions, European 9-Ball Championship, the Italian Open, and now the World Pool Championship.The final eight players in the single-elimination tournament were all Europeans with the exception of Canadian Luc Salvas, who defeated Thorsten “The Hitman” Hohmann 8- 0 to get to the semifinal round. Engert eliminated home-town favorite Alex Lely with a commanding 8-1 score to get to the semifinals to face off against Salvas.The other face-offs consisted of Neils Feijen, who had sent Efren Reyes home earlier in the day, and Marcus Chamat and Nick Van Den Berg and Oliver Ortmann. Getting a lead on his opponent from the gate, Feijen had a 6-0 lead over Chamat before moving onto take the 8-2 win. Ortmann also got out to a lead over his opponent and never looked back. He went on to take the win to secure his spot in the semifinal round.
Although Salvas struck first in the match with Engert to determine who would go onto the finals, it was Engert that got out to a few-rack lead, arriving at 4-1 before Salvas answered back. Salvas was able to get a few more racks, but Engert always managed to stay ahead of him, finally taking the win 8-3. In the other semifinal match, Feijen and Ortmann were battling it out for the spot in the final. A first-round miss by Feijen opened the door enough for Ortmann to get four racks to his name, but his opponent took some advantages of his own to tie the score at 5. That is all Feijen could get before the German won 8-5, guaranteeing that a German would take home the World Pool Championship.Ortmann met fellow-countryman and friend Engert in the final match, where, after a bitter safety battle, the two players had the score tied 3-3 and then again at 5-5. When the match was tied for the third time at 6-6, Ortmann fouled trying to get out of a snooker, allowing Engert to take that rack and to reach the hill first. Having just one rack standing between him and victory, Engert broke and hung the 9 in the corner pocket but had no position on the 1 for a 1-9 combo. After a miss by Ortmann in the next rack, Engert went on to drop the 2 and 3, but did not have to take a shot on the 4-9 combo because Ortmann threw in his white towel, signaling Engert had won with an 8-6 final decision. The $20,000 check and trophy were present to Engert by 2003’s Master Champion, Tony Drago.Visit InsidePOOL for the latest news from the sport of billiards and pool.

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