So then the group stages of the Austrian Open have now been completed and the draw for the knockout stages has been made available…
So from having 16 groups and 128 players, we are now down to the knockout stages of the 2008 Austrian Open. Those who managed to top their groups this week will receive a bye to the last 32 stage, while players in second and third places will now meet in the last 48.
To view the results so far, the draw and the highest breaks, please click the link above to visit GSC.
For quick reference, the group winners were:
Tom Ford, Lee Richardson, Jurian Heusdens, Shaun Murphy, Judd Trump, Michael Holt, Matt Selt, Mark Williams, Ryan Day, Dominic Dale, Dene O’Kane, Stuart Bingham, Mark King, Jimmy Michie, Robert Burda, Patrick Rosmann
Which leaves the last 48 draw looking like this:
Lasse Munstermann v Dean Thomas
Michal Zielinski v Shachar Ruberg
Jamie Cope v Clausdieter Franschitz
Matt Couch v Marius Ancuta
George Louca v Shakul Eliau
Barry Hawkins v Thomas Cesal
Richard McHugh v Thomas Höltschl
Helmut Oswald v Mike Henson
Krzysztof Wrobel v Linda Lucas
Jeff Kennedy v Steve Mifsud
Robert Butof v Felix Pleschek
Thomas Faoro v Luca Brecel
Peter Ebdon v Marcin Nitschke
Jurgen Kesseler v Alain Vandersteen
Sebastian Hainzl v Paul Schopf
Henry Killian v Alex Borg
Points to note
The group of the day for me was Group K where Kiwi veteran Dene O’Kane did a great job to come through in first place, beating world number 19 Jamie Cope in the process. He only made one half-century all day but that’s an impressive performance nevertheless.
While O’Kane wasn’t scoring heavily, plenty of others were however, notably Stuart Bingham who made three century breaks and six others over 50. He always seems to perform well in events like this and I would not be surprised to see him go far. The highest break of the day however went to Shaun Murphy who hit a fabulous 140 to go with his 104 from earlier on in the day. Also impressing were Welshman Dominic Dale and Germany’s Lasse Munstermann who both hit 10 breaks over 50.
Otherwise there were no real shocks, most of the professional players managing to top their groups without too much trouble. Those that didn’t were Peter Ebdon (beaten by fellow pro Judd Trump), Matt Couch (who lost out to Bingham) and Barry Hawkins who finished behind Jimmy Michie.
One to watch this week could be young Polish prodigy Michal Zielinski who will be looking to make a name for himself this weekend. It seems like he is Poland’s best hope yet of having a player on the main tour…