BERGISCH GLADBACH – The young German billiard player Amir Ibraimov made a perfect start in the Longoni Nextgen Grand Prix by winning the Grand Prix in his homeland. The victory took place on Sunday at the Bergisch Gladbach club. At just 17 years old, the young German is already the 2023 Junior World vice champion and the 2024 European vice champion. He also won a Nextgen Grand Prix in February 2024 in Desio, defeating Spaniard Toni Garcia, this weekend's finalist, in the quarterfinals with an incredible start, scoring 25 points in 10 innings!
In Sunday's final, the Spaniard kept up the pace from the start and immediately rallied from a 7-0 lead to an 8-8 lead in four innings. Shortly after, he even led 13-11, but Amir Ibraimov continued his high pace, while Toni Garcia gradually weakened. The final score was 35-23 in 23/22 innings!
Amir Ibraimov won 8 of 8 matches at this Grand Prix against Cinar Korkmaz (0.862), Paul Turla' (1.666), Mio Svensson (1.000), Lorenzo Fiore (1.136), and Tangui Duriez (1.470) in the qualifying round, then in the knockouts against Cenk Sengul (1.060), Bruno Martinez in the semifinals (1.666), and then against Toni Garcia in the final (1.521). A promising future awaits him in the junior and senior divisions, with an overall average of 1.243. Toni Garcia (0.968), Bruno Martinez (0.870), and Arturo Zotov (0.743) are the three Spaniards who won silver and bronze. Congratulations to the Spanish school!
The final ranking:
- Amir Ibraimov 16-1,243-8
- Toni Garcia 14-0.968-7
- Bruno Martinez 8-0.870-8
- Arturo Zotov 8-0.743-5
- Tangui Duriez 8-1,037-6
- Marcos Morales 8-1.015-9
- Toon Bollansee 5-0.750-5
- Cenk bartu Sengul 7-0.531-6
- Cinar Korkmaz 5-0.684-7
- Luca Philipoom 6-0.649-8
- Engin ali Kozluca 3-0.641-4
- Kaan Demir 6-0.620-5
Amir Ibraimov in his race to the title
Amir Ibraimov and Toni Garcia
Toni Garcia and Toon Bollansee
