3-Cushion
SCHILTIGHEIM - He nearly was out of the Agipi Masters, but saved himself with a marvellous escape to victory. Torbjörn Blomdahl actually had already surrenderd in his match against Ruben Legazpi, who took after a run of eight a lead with twenty points in the ninth inning (27-7). The Spaniard, who was suddenly overwhelmed by stress, kept his adventage, but missed in the 20th inning a rather easy carom. Torbjörn Blomdahl came to the table, made a run of fifteen, Legazpi got another chance to decide the match, but he missed again. And then Blomdahl finished unbelievebel with eight points.
The Swede could hardly hide his happiness after the 23 points in two innings. ,,I don’t think that I ever did it before in my career’’, he laughed a little later for the camera. ,,I know it was my last chance to stay in the tournament, I was so close to elimination.''
The match against the young Legazpi, who one day earlier was defeated by Daniel Sánchez, was from the beginning to the last innings controlled by the Spaniard. He constantly kept Blomdahl on a backlog of fifteen, twenty points. But then, at the end, came the explosion of Blomdahl, who found his rhytm and conjured the caroms out of his cuetop. Daniel Sánchez, who was just defeated by Dion Nelin on the other table, watched it in admiration, just like Nelin himself, who was assured of qualifying with an unexpected victory Blomdahl.
And so it happened. The unleashed Blomdahl was unstoppable and made the 23 points in the two last innings. Legazpi had an equalizing inning, but his production stopped after one point (50-48 in 22).
The denouement in this group follows tomorrow, in the match between Blomdahl and Sánchez, which of the two players will accompany Dion Nelin to the next round. ,,It's really an unfortunate pairing, that Mr. Claude Fath has invented'', Blomdahl said after the match. ,,We are now playing for a place in the next round with two players who gathered nine world titles. This group is incredibly heavy.''