Spanish Open Day 2: Szewczyk, Maciol and Alcaide Reach Last 32
The winners' side settled half of the last 32 in Gandia — and it took a hill-hill decider to keep the home favourite alive.
GANDIA, Spain — Half of the last 32 at the Revora Spanish Open is set. Sixteen men came through the winners' side on Friday at the Gandia Palace Hotel, led by standings leader Wojciech Szewczyk, home favourite David Alcaide and a ruthless Daniel Macioł — and the day closed near midnight with a losers' round that set up Saturday's final 16 qualifying ties.
Szewczyk, Maciol Waste No Time After Doha
Both Poles arrived straight from the Qatar World Cup 10-Ball semi-finals and went 3-0 on the day to reach the single-elimination stage. Szewczyk, the Euro Tour standings leader, opened with a 9-5 win over Germany's Niklas Dohr, survived a hill-hill test against Slovakia's Timothei Furko 9-8, then closed the evening by beating Sweden's Walter Laikre 9-5.
Macioł was even more emphatic: a 9-2 debut against Syria's Delmon Khwaja, a 9-0 whitewash of the Netherlands' Sky van den Berg, and a 9-2 dismissal of Norway's Roger Lysholm — four racks conceded across three matches.
Alcaide Survives Hill-Hill; Sanchez Ruiz Too
The home crowd nearly lost its hero. Alcaide eased past fellow Spaniard Raul Martin Muela 9-4 in the morning session, but Germany's Dennis Laszkowski pushed the former world champion to 8-8 in the last winners'-side match of the night before Alcaide closed it out 9-8.
Francisco Sanchez Ruiz took the hard route as well: 9-6 over veteran Pole Radoslaw Babica in the afternoon, then a hill-hill 9-8 against the Czech Republic's Petr Urban to join his compatriot in the last 32.
Sixteen Through, Big Names Rerouted
Also through from the winners' side: defending champion Oliver Szolnoki (9-4 over Alvaro Lamapereira Lage), Germany's Luca Menn and Felix Vogel, Croatia's Ivica Putnik, Poland's Tomasz Kaplan, Sambor Stachowiak and Wiktor Zielinski, Germany's Eric Mattern, Norway's Emil-Andre Gangfløt, France's Fabio Rizzi and the Czech Republic's Jaroslav Polach.
The evening's two surprise results both finished 9-8: Kaplan edged Qatar quarter-finalist Konrad Juszczyszyn, and Stachowiak did the same to five-time tour winner Mateusz Sniegocki. Neither beaten man is out — both drop into Saturday's losers' qualification.
Late-Night Losers' Round Sets Saturday's Card
The final wave — 16 losers'-side matches — wrapped up close to midnight local time. Three of them needed deciding racks: Jonas Souto edged Tobias Bongers 9-8, Yannick Pongers did the same to Juan Carlos Exposito, and Hubert Lopotko survived a marathon against Switzerland's Dimitri Jungo, also 9-8. Babica's week ended a round later than his winners'-side defeat, beaten 9-7 by Ukraine's Dmytro Skorokhodov.
Saturday's losers' qualification (09:00 local, winners take the remaining last-32 places): Iker Andoni Echeverria v Fabrizio Ingrasci, Lopotko v Laikre, Andrea Grosso v Szymon Kural, Jeremi Nowak v Roman Hybler, Ramazan Dincer v Laszkowski, Pawel Blachowski v Sniegocki, Mykola Moroz v Mieszko Fortunski, Souto v Juszczyszyn, Mika van Berkel v Karl Gnadeberg, Roberto Bartol v Marc Bijsterbosch, Skorokhodov v Lysholm, Pongers v Urban, Juri Pisklov v Dzmitry Hryb, Kristian Mrva v Pablo Garcia-Lagar, Alex Montpellier v Lamapereira Lage and Mariusz Skoneczny v Gabriel Aspholm.
Among Friday's other exits: Furko, beaten twice on the hill-hill; Kacper Konkel; home hope Martin Muela; van den Berg; Stefan Kasper; and Slovenia's Svit Pavlinjek.
Filler Opens With a Win
World No. 1 Pia Filler began the women's event with a 7-4 win over Norway's Ine Helvik and meets Poland's Oliwia Zalewska in Saturday's winners' qualification (11:00 local) — one of eight ties that will decide the women's last 16. Kamila Khodjaeva, Ana Gradisnik and Jolien Schuurman also came through the winners' side unbeaten.
What's Next
Saturday brings the men's losers' qualification at 09:00, the last 32 from 12:00 as single elimination begins with races to 11, and the last 16 at 21:00. The women play their winners' qualification at 11:00 and reach their own last 16 by 19:00 (all times local, UTC+1). Tables 1, 2 and 3 stream live on the Pro Billiard TV YouTube channel.
Verified results via the EPBF draw & results and the women's draw, cross-checked with Pro Pool Tour's live tracker; full coverage hub at NCUE Media.