News

David Vaitzman booked a place in the knockout stage of the 2023 European Seniors individual Championships in Albena (Bulgaria) after beating Ivan Kupov 3:0. It was Vaitzman’s second win of the day in Group T and with it the Israeli player is assured to finish top of the group with a match against Roberto Simoni (Italy) to come.

Vaitzman and Kupov played on the feature table but it took them awhile to get going. Both players missed some pretty easy pots early on before Vaitzman coming from behind to take the opening frame on the black.

From there the two-time event quarterfinalist put Kupov under constant pressure ruthlessly punishing his mistakes. Trailing by three snookers in the final frame the local favorite decided to go on but couldn’t make the difference.

Vaitzman’s win, however, was the only one for Israel in the evening session of Day 1. Shay Arama came back from two frames down but lost 3:2 to Graham Beardmore (England) despite his opponent not making a single break over 35 points.

Yakov Shaashuashvili lost 3:0 to Simon Cooke (Northern Ireland) who after a long flight delay arrived in Albena mere hours before the start of the session. Shaul Eliau lost 3:0 as well to Esa Kaikumaa (Finland).