De Backer and Merckx to final phase

LOMMEL – Peter De Backer scored 6 out of 3, Eddy Merckx had 2 victories and 1 loss; they are the first two players to qualify for the quarterfinals of the Cuvino Superprestige. They ended on first and second place in flight A, where Francis Forton and Ronny Daniels were eliminated. No fireworks yet, on the first day.

Peter De Backer made the best impression in these first prelims. The man from Aalst defeated Francis Forton (40–31 in 34), then played a high-level match against Eddy Merckx (40–25 in 20) and finished the job against Ronny Daniels, at that time already certain of going through, with 40–38 in 37.

Eddy Merckx, having lost to de Backer, had to dig deep in his last match. The Belgian champion faced the always dangerous Francis Forton. The man from Brussels was behind from the get-go: 20 – 8 in 8, 25 – 12 in 10, but fought back to 34 – 27 and 39 – 33. Eventually, he could not close the gap: 40 – 33 in 22.

Peter De Backer finished with 6 points and 1.318 in first place. Eddy Merckx scored 4 points and 1.478. Third was Forton, with two points, Daniels ended fourth.

Today (Wednesday), flight B is in action, with Roland Forthomme, Davy van Havere, Martin Spoormans and Henk Blauwblomme.