Jumping Jack beats bright Baghi

Just in time for the upcoming Österreichische Meisterschaft [ÖM] in May, five-times national champion Hans Nirnberger from Vienna's SEBC ended his 17-months winless streak on the ASL Grand Prix circuit. Jack had last lifted the trophy back in November 2005 and was yet to appear in a final of the 2006/07 season. But the last event of the season, staged at the ISC venue in Stadlau last weekend, saw Nirnberger getting back to his best. He claimed relatively easy victories over Christian Hackl, Paul Schopf and Peter Pertiller, before recording a 3-0 quarter-final win over Garry Balter, who had won two of the last three ASL Grand Prix tournaments. In the semis, Nirnberger got a frame behind against ISC's Graeme Fish, but then rattled off four straight frames to close out the match with a great 88, his highest break of the weekend. In the final, Nirnberger went even further behind, but then won five in a row to jump from 0-3 to 5-3 and to finally lay his hand on the ASL Grand Prix trophy again.

Jack's final opponent was his former clubmate Ebrahim Baghi. The 15Reds player from Vienna had a memorable tournament. He qualified for the KO-stage automatically after the withdrawal of one of his opponents in the round-robin group. He went on to beat Markus Führlinger 3-1, and was shining brightly as he upset Bernhard Müllner by beating the reigning national champion 3-0 in the quarter-finals. Things even got better for Ebi as he met Richard McHugh in the semis. Last month, McHugh suffered his first ever defeat on Austrian soil [3-4 against Balter] and certainly did not expect to get beaten again so soon. Baghi got in the lead on three occassions, but the Irishman managed to level the score each time, 3-3. Baghi finally won a scrappy decider 60-20 to stun McHugh and book his place in the final. But there, however, his 3-0 lead over Nirnberger did not proof to be enough for victory. Baghi is a good example of a player who relies on his solid allround game and is not dependent on hitting big breaks to be succesfull _ his best run of the whole weekend was a 38.

...Hans Nirnberger snatched the final ASL Grand Prix title of the season...

The big breaks once more came from McHugh. The Tyrolean Irishman hit a superb 103 in his first-round match against Laszlo Szasz and added five more half-centuries to dominate the tournament's high-break list; a kind of cold comfort for his semi-final exit. McHugh overtook Müllner on top of the rankings last month. Thanks to his third place this weekend [he beat Graeme Fish in the small final, 4-2], McHugh will end the season on that well-deserved number No. 1 position. In his first year in Austrian snooker, McHugh entered five ASL Grand Prix events and won three of them. When he will be able to play all seven tournaments and collect even more ranking points next season, it will take some miracle to get him away from there.

But who knows? Snooker remains an unpredictable game full of surprises. Just look at the story of the 14-year-old Kai Klien, who had already developed into a promising pool player as he picked up a snooker cue for the very first time just a couple of months ago. He easily worked his way through the necessary qualifying tournaments in Innsbruck, rolled in a 84 break at the practice table, and entered the ASL Grand Prix circuit while equalling the record by Manuel Urban from Linz' Snooker Cracks for the youngest ever player to do so. Klien won his round-robin group by defeating the much more experienced players Dieter Simoncsics and Daniel Potmesil [both 3-1], and even made it to the quarter-finals after downing Severin Grösslinger by the same scoreline as well. It was McHugh himself who had to stop Klien's remarkable ASL Grand Prix debut. Klien & co now have to wait no less than five months for the next ASL Grand Prix in September. But in the meantime, Austrian snooker awaits some mouth-watering highlights in May with the ÖM and, above all, the Austria Snooker Open 2007 [ASO] in Wels. This year's ASO features world class players like Ken Doherty, Stephen Lee, Mark King, and Ian McCulloch, who has just ended Graeme Dott's hopes to become the first ever snooker player who succesfully defends his first world title. More on the Austria Snooker Open soon here on Maximumbreak!

7. ASL GRAND PRIX 2006/07

[Stadlau, 21/04 - 22/04]

Results:

quarter-finals:
Hans Nirnberger - Garry Balter 3-0
Graeme Fish - Sebastian Hainzl 3-1
Ebrahim Baghi - Bernhard Müllner 3-0
Richard McHugh - Kai Klien 3-0

semi-finals:
Nirnberger - Fish 4-1
Baghi - McHugh 4-3

final:
Nirnberger - Baghi 5-3

Break list:

- 103 Richard McHugh
- 88 Hans Nirnberger
- 80 Graeme Fish
- 74 Garry Balter
- 69 McHugh
- 62 McHugh, Nirnberger, Balter
- 60 McHugh

Click here for full tournament results.