Jack the Winner sharp as a knife

It certainly would do no justice to Hans Nirnberger saying that he won the first Austrian Snooker League Grand Prix of the 2007/08 season thanks to the absence of retired Richard McHugh. First of all, Jack also won the final ASL Grand Prix of last season when top-ranked McHugh was still competing. Besides that, Jack looked that sharp last weekend in Innsbruck, that it is questionable whether even the Irishman could have stopped his winning streak.

...In-form Hans Nirnberger won the first ASL Grand Prix of the 2007/08 season...

Nirnberger lost a round-robin group match 1-2 on a respotted black against ÖSBV President Alexander Pichler. But by that time, both Nirnberger and Pichler knew that they were already through to the last 16. Otherwise, Jack recorded all whitewashes, beating Christian Spalt 2-0, Paul Schopf 3-0 [thanks to breaks of 76 and 63], Clausdieter Franschitz 3-0, and in the semi-finals all-time rival Garry Balter 4-0 [with a 61 break in the second frame], before defeating Chau Zi Kim in a one-sided final. Nirnberger started with a 22 and a 61 to go 1-0 up, and later added breaks of 36 and 55 to clinch a comfortable 4-0 victory. The 31-year-old lefthander from Vienna's SEBC couldn't wish for a better start into the new campaign. Nirnberger, who recently teamed up with three other top players to form the Künsterbüro Snooker-Team, showed some impressive break-building. Being the only Austrian player ever to record a 147 maximum, Jack once again proved that he is the best player around in Austria in that department of the game.

So, Kim couldn't stop the winning run of Nirnberger. The 15Reds player ended last season ranked 42nd, well below his standards. He missed the opening to that season and had to work his way back into the ASL Grand Prix circuit by playing ASL Qualifier and Challenger tournaments, which costed him a bunch of ranking poins. But Kim is now back where he belongs. He had a fine 3-2 win over Pichler in the quarter-finals, and then ousted reigning national champion Felix Pleschek in the semi-finals. Pleschek hit a 51 to take the lead, but Kim won three in a row with breaks of 37 and 36, and added a 31 to clinch the sixth frame for a great 4-2 victory. A round earlier, 2007 champion Pleschek had defeated 2006 champion Bernhard Müllner 3-2. Pleschek ended up fourth after losing the small final 2-3 to Balter.

And what about the youngsters? The 14-year-old Kai Klien couldn't reproduce his excellent performance from last April, when he reached the quarter-finals in his first ever ASL Grand Prix. This time, Klien was eliminated in the group stage, losing 0-2 to Paul Schopf and 1-2 to Markus Sallaberger, who both are under-21 players as well. With Schopf, Sallaberger and Manuel Urban, still three young talents made it to the last 16. They will get another chance to do even better at next month's ASL Grand Prix at the ISC club in Stadlau.

1. ASL GRAND PRIX 2007/08
[Innsbruck, 15/09 - 16/09]

Results:

quarter-finals:
Hans Nirnberger - Clausdieter Franschitz 3-0
Garry Balter - Sebastian Hainzl 3-1
Chau Zi Kim - Alexander Pichler 3-2
Felix Pleschek - Bernhard Müllner 3-2

semi-finals:
Nirnberger - Balter 4-0
Kim - Pleschek 4-2

final:
Nirnberger - Kim 4-0

Break list:

- 76, 63, 61, 61, 55 Hans Nirnberger
- 51 Felix Pleschek
- 46 Nirnberger
- 45 Sebastian Hainzl
- 39 Manuel Urban, Paul Schopf
- 37 Pleschek
- 36 Nirnberger
- 35 Nirnberger, Hainzl

Click here for full tournament results.

© text: Eric Willemsen [Vienna] / picture: Patricks Black Seven Snooker Club