Thursday, August 18th, 2022 – Sunday, August 14th, four days ago, Albin Ouschan won the Inaugural European Open, as we've stated before; however, in this article, we cover Albin's historical, golden run in the event.
In the first round, rising up from the very bottom bracket of the 256-player field, Albin takes down his first opponent in a relatively uncontested 9-4 victory over Sander Kont.
Then, in the next round, Albin Ouschan puts the beat down on Dawid Borkowski 9-0. Total beast mode billiards.
After that, Ouschan reaches cruise control, winning 9-3 against Michal Gavenciak, then winning a commanding 9-1 victory over Bader Alawadhi, who had been cruising along pretty well himself until he hit that stone-wall Ouschan, nearly blanked in the last sixty-four.
Then, in the last 32, Albin beat Max Lechner in the close 10-7 contest, the only time Ouschan had been contested up to that point. Then, in the last 16, Albin pulled out a nail-biting-thriller match 10-9 against Denis Grabe. After that, in the quarter-finals, Albin regained momentum, beating Konrad Juszczyszyn 11-5 in yet another convincing victory. Then, Mario He fell to Albin in another 11-9 thriller that seemed like it could go either way, and that was the semi-finals.
Finally, for the final, Albin Ouschan came through the last tumbler of the event, none other than his arch-rival, SVB. They both played some of the best pool the world has ever seen, and Ouschan won on his 32nd birthday and celebrated as the European Open Champion 2022, SVB missing the mark by perhaps just one missed five ball, a shot that may replay in his mind once, or a thousand times.