‘I want to be happy with my performance and if it’s good I can be champion again’

Last year, his private and professional life seemed to be running in sync with each other as Austria’a Albin Ouschan lifted his first 2016 World 9-Ball Championship in Doha.
“The difference now is all the tournaments I’ve played since 2014,” the then 25-year-old Ouschan had told WPA-Pool.com on the penultimate day of last year’s event. “Maybe I’m a better player now. I practice a lot. I won the China Open last year. I became a father about a year ago. I played in the Mosconi (Cup). There are many big steps in my life. I’m happy with all the things in my life. My baby is perfect. My girlfriend is perfect.  So probably I have a perfect life so that’s why I play almost perfect on the table.”
Coming into this year’s competition, Ouschan has said that his modus operandi will be to stay calm.
“There is some pressure because many people will watch your matches but I know that situation already,” he told WPA-Pool.com in an interview recently. “I will just try to stay calm and cool. We all know how many good players are at the World Championship, so I can’t say now that I want to win or I have to win.  I just want to be happy with my performance and if it’s good I can be world champion again.”
His final opponent from last year, USA’s Shane Van Boening, who had made it to the deciding finale for two straight years, is not in the 128-player draw this time round.
However, the presence of former champions, including Thorsten Hohmann of Germany, Ko Pin Yi of Taipei, Niels Feijen of the Netherlands, Yukio Akagariyama of Japan among others, won’t make it any easier when the main draw starts today.
Ouschan had barely lost to Feijen in the 2014 edition of the event, before he notched up many wins and high finishes in many European events, besides winning the brutally tough China Open in 2015.
Last year, the Austrian was in sublime touch, first beating Canada’s Alex Pagulayan in the semi-final, and then handing out a 13-6 to Van Boening.
“It’s a feeling you can’t describe. I remember when I was on the last 3 balls I felt like my heart will jump out of my chest. On the last nine I just thought ‘Finally, World Champion’,” he said ahead of the 2017 edition of the tournament, which has a total prize pot of USD200,000, including USD30,000 for the winner.  
Reminiscing last year’s final, he said, “He (Van Boening) made two mistakes in the beginning of the match which gave me the big lead. When I was up like 7-2, I just thought of not giving him a chance to come back and we know I didn’t.”
Good times have followed for Ouschan.
“Everyone knows me now and I also won the award for best athlete in my state, which is great because the biggest sport in Austria is skiing. So to win the award against our Pro Ski Team is an honour. I also have some new sponsors and some better contracts,” he said.
In all this success, the Austrian hasn’t forgotten his fans. “It wasn’t always easy but I finally made it to the top of the world but that wouldn’t be possible without the fans behind me,” he said.
The group stages will run from December 9-11, wherein the players will be divided into 16 groups of 8 playing a race-to-9, alternate break, double elimination format.
Four players from each group will make up the final 64, the dramatic single elimination phase of the tournament. Matches will then become a race to 11, alternate break, before a race-to-13 final, which takes place on December 14.
Qatar will be represented by six players, including Ali al-Obaidli, Mhanaa al-Obaidli, Bashar Abdulmajeed, Abdulatif Alfawal, Waleed Majid and Muzammil Hussain.