3-Cushion
PORTO - The Spanish, triple world champion Dani Sánchez needed only one match in the final rounds of the World Cup in Porto to be back in the world's top twelve ranking. ,,I am very happy with it'', he smiled after his magnificent battle with Jérémy Bury in the second round of the World Cup. The victory was one of an outstanding high class: the Spanish champion topped his opponent 40-28 in 12 innings, good for 3.333 average. The Frenchman, watching the demonstration from his chair, could not blame himself as a 2.333 average loser.
,,Dani played perfectly, he did nothing wrong'', said right after the match. The conclusion is that Dani Sánchez therefore probably passes his French opponent in the top twelve.
Two rounds in the main event showed once again how close the top players in the World Cup are. Six of seven seeded players are already out after the first two rounds: Caudron, Zanetti, Cho, Merckx, Tasdemir and Bury. Eddy Merckx lost to one of the Vietnamese in this tournament, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen, who showed his skills in an uphill match, in which knocked down his famous opponent 40-35 in 23 innings.
The Belgian Peter Ceulemans had a walk in the park and bested Tayfun Tasdemir with a generous margin 40-23 in 18. There was only one of the seede players who survived, in a bloodcurling match between Kyung-Roul Kim and Ramon Rodriguez. The Korean saved himself with a final run of seven. Ramon Rodriguez, nevertheless, showed that he's back after he retired for some years on the international podium. Rodriguez put Kim on a 36-33 backlog, but the Korean finished with seven.