3-Cushion
LIMA - Frédéric Caudron has arrived in his hotel and takes a long sleep now in Lima. Eddy Leppens told the people in his country that he arrived a few hours ago. ,,Sometimes it's a hard job to play billiards at this level'', he said. The four Belgians, without Jef Philipoom, who stayed at home, have arrived in Lima, where the 64th world championship three-cushion will start tomorrow. They are asleep now to eliminate the jet lag and to have an optimal preparing for the tournament.
Three Spaniards (see the picture) are still in the air and will arrive in a few hours. The world champion Dani Sánchez and his friends Javier Palazón and Antonio Ortiz probably expect heavy weather, because it's winter time in Peru, but temperatures are mild. The predictions are that it will be around twenty degrees with lots of sun the entire week.
Sunny days or not: the players and followers will concentrate on the billiard arena of Circulo Militar de Jesus Maria, where a battle will be fought between Europeans, Asians and South Americans until Saturday. The undisputed contenders come from the top five ranking: Dick Jaspers always plays on his top, through the whole year, although he won his last world title already seven years ago, in 2004 in Rotterdam. Frédéric Caudron is in an incredible form for months, came back to the second place in the ranking and was only beaten in the final of the World Cup in Matosinhos, after a wonderful performance against Dani Sánchez.
The Spaniard is number three on the ranking again and is a player who can perfectly focus on important tournaments. He is not even the Spanish champion and number one in his country, is often months out of the picture, but is able to shine suddenly in world tournaments. He showed it with much glamour in the world championships in Lugo in 2005 and Sluiskil last year. Sánchez won his second and third world title and shared himself among the great champions of three-cushion.
Kyung-Roul Kim, the number four, is an unpredictable player, he seemed not in great shape losing against Roland Forthomme in Matosinhos, but of course he is always dangerous to his opponents.
Eddy Merckx is the paragon of regularity, a model player, known for his enormous fighting spirit. The Belgian had risen to its best position ever after he won the World Cup in Trabzon, but has dropped a few places after the defeat by Jef Philipoom in Matosinhos, where he lost many points. Therefore, Merckx is now the fifth in the ranking.
The Europeans send more sharpshooters to the front in Lima, like Torbjörn Blomdahl, Jérémy Bury, Martin Horn, Tayfun Tasemir. And everybody is warned: look out for Marco Zanetti, the double world champion, who has played a formidable European Cup tournament in Strasbourg, and will come provoked at the start after the collisions with the international federations and the much discussed penalty after Suwon.
The danger for the Europeans comes mainly from Asian player Sung-Won Choi, the Korean who rose to the top ten last year and won the Agipi Masters a few months ago. Jae Ho Cho made a great impression in Matosinhos, Jung Han Heo can grow to great heights and Chung-Bok Lee has been crowned to the Asian champion this year.
What can we expect from the South Americans in their own environment? Ramon Rodriguez has been very busy as one of the organizers of the the tournament, moreover he finds himself in a strong group with Sung-Won Choi and Youichirou Mori. The most talented, Pedro Piedrabuena, who is the American champion, wil meet Dani Sánchez in the qualifying rounds.