Germany dominates the Eurotour

This week’s latest 9-ball pool tournament on the Eurotour has done much to cement the dominance of German players on the European professional tour. The Costa-Del-Sol Open from Malaga featured a whopping 27 players from Germany. Only Spain as the hosting nation actually beat that number. It is not only the vast number of players coming out of Germany but also the individual talent that each of these players has.

At this latest tournament 6 of the 27 players managed to qualify through the double elimination group stage to make the last 32 knockout stages (6 players into the last 32 was also achieved by Britain at this event). That is 22% of the German contingent qualifying for the money stages. Included in the last 32 were regulars Thomas Engert, Oliver Ortmann, Andreas Roschkowsky and Christian Reimering. All of these players feature in the top 16 of the Eurotour rankings a number not matched by any other member nation of the EPBF. However, it does not stop there, Ralf Souquet and Jorn Kaplan also appear in the top 16 of the rankings and 2003 World 9-ball Champion Thorsten Hohmann who is playing regularly in the USA is in the top 32 along with Schmidt, Belka, Pauritsch and Schober. This means that 13 of Europe's top 32 players are from Germany and that at any tournament there is a high possibility that a German will win the event.

In Malaga 3 of the semi-finalists were German with the other, Imran Majid, from Britain (once again reaching a semi-final). Majid was beaten by Reimering and Roschkowsky was beaten by Thomas Engert, a player who last season had his greatest ever year on the world scene with Eurotour wins, World Masters Champion and International Challenge of Champions win. On paper he would have been the victor going into the last four. But as often happens when Germany are represented in such numbers, Engert lost the final match to a very in form Christian Reimering adding another German name to the growing list of winners.

How can the dominance be explained? Germany as a nation do love the game of pool and their amateur scene is one of the best in the world. Having a flourishing amateur pool scene will always push players to their limit and make them want to achieve greater things within the game. Germany has a professional club league which pits players against other high class opposition on a regular basis (Holland also have the same). It would probably be true to suggest that the German government offer help to their professional players as do the governing body of the sport. The media coverage is far greater in Germany than in other European countries.

All of these factors combined create a winning atmosphere around the German nations pool players, they are used to winning and continue to do so emphatically.

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