Т
hird Round of the Balkan Billiards Association (BBA) Championship
The third round of the Balkan Billiards Association (BBA) Championship took place on June 28–29 in the city of Thessaloniki, Greece. This event, part of a six-round series planned throughout the year, was organized by the “Billiard Center” Club and attracted 68 players from Bulgaria, Kosovo, Greece, North Macedonia, and Albania.
After Albania claimed victory in the first two rounds, this time they had to settle for second place. The final was a repeat of the previous round, but this time Chris Papageorgiou emerged victorious over his familiar opponent Ermal Dyli with a score of 9–5. This marked the first time Dyli finished second this year.
Chris Papageorgiou impressed with his strong performance, claiming his first gold medal in the BBA and showing great potential for future competitions.
The bronze medals were awarded to:
Dimitris Strevinas (Greece), who lost in the semifinal to Ermal Dyli (2–9);
Daniel Malchev (Bulgaria), who once again showed consistency by securing his third consecutive third-place finish after a semifinal loss to Papageorgiou (2–9).
Quarterfinal highlights:
Besjan Sinanaj (Albania), defeated for a second consecutive tournament by Dyli, this time 4–9;
Georgi Georgiev (Bulgaria), Bulgaria’s top player and a participant in the upcoming World Championship, was considered a tournament favorite but was eliminated by Papageorgiou (6–9);
Mal Shehu (Kosovo), the promising junior from Kosovo, showed remarkable progress and finished fifth after losing to Daniel Malchev (4–9);
Deuan Sipkovski (North Macedonia), a returning veteran who had missed the first two rounds, made a strong comeback and finished fifth after losing his quarterfinal match to Dimitris Strevinas (5–9).
The junior players also left a strong impression.
Astrit Dervishaj (Albania), Veliyan Salambashev, Georgi Terziyski, and Konstantin Kostadinov (all three from Bulgaria) advanced to the second day of the tournament and finished tied for 17th place — a solid result that demonstrates consistency and signals promise ahead of the European Championship in Slovenia in two weeks.
They will be joined there by Mal Shehu and Iris Gashi from Kosovo.
Updated BBA Rankings – Top 8 after Round 3:
Ermal Dyli
Chris Papageorgiou
Daniel Malchev
Julian Xhafa
Besjan Sinanaj
Sashko Dimitrov
Orestis Psomopoulos
Radoslav Milkov
The fourth round of the championship will take place on September 6–7 in Sofia, Bulgaria, hosted by Club Akademiyata.
