Liu Xin and Waratthanun Sukritthanes win JOY European Heyball Open Championships

A new addition to the expanding JOY World Heyball Tour, the tournament was organised by the European Pocket Billiards Federation and sanctioned by the World Pool Association.

Players representing several nations from four different continents featured in the men's competition, with Liu taking the inaugural title.

Liu's campaign began with a 7-6 loss to Roberto Bartol (Croatia), but victories over Kurshan Moodley (South Africa) 7-2 and Karol Skowerski (Poland) 7-3 on the losers’ side of the draw saw him emerge from the double elimination phase and qualify for the straight knockouts.

From there, Liu eliminated Mateusz Śniegocki (Poland) 7-3 in the last 16 before winning three successive deciding frame matches en route to the title: Jack Whelan (United Kingdom) 7-6, Mario He (Austria) 7-6, and then Australia's Jake McCartney 7-6 in the final.

For Liu - a finalist at a JOY Cup Players Championship event in 2022 - this is the biggest Heyball accolade of his career, to date.

Having recently reached the title match of a Heyball event in Thailand, it was back-to-back final appearances for McCartney, who is a two-time title winner from the Ultimate Pool English 8-ball pool circuit. 'Jakestar' made his latest final with a 100% win record, ousting Albin Ouschan 7-6 in the last four before just coming up short in the showpiece match.

There was also a hill-hill conclusion in the final of the Women’s European Heyball Open as Sukritthanes pipped Shi Tianqi 6-5 to become the first champion.

30-year-old Sukritthanes won both her matches in the initial phase to advance to the knockouts where she defeated Sara Rocha (Portugal) 6-0 in the last 16, the host nation's Ana Gradisnik 5-4 in the quarter-finals, and Elise Qiu (Netherlands) 6-0 in the semi-finals.

Shi had denied Veronika Ivanovskaia (Germany) 6-5 in the other last four fixture.

The winners of both the men's and women's event receive a $10,000USD top prize.

Attention in Slovenia now turns to the first World Heyball Championships which take place at the same venue between September 19-22. Once again, there are separate events for both men and women, with the top prize in each being $30,000USD.