3-Cushion
ISTANBUL - The only one of sixteen players who shined with a high average was Dick Jaspers. The Dutchman colored the opening day of the European Cup final in Istanbul with a very strong performance against Nikos Polychronopoulos (40-28 in 15, 2.667/1.867). All the other races were slightly below the normal level of these top teams.
BC Deurne and FC Porto are heading almost certainly to the semifinals after one day and two matches. The Belgians defeated Coral Colon from Spain with the maximum score (8-0), the Portuguese team lost only one match to Alcantarilla, because Jaime Sanchez outsprinted Manuel Santos Oliveira in his winning last inning.
Torbjörn Blomdahl and Dani Sánchez took victory with only three caroms. The Swede still looked at a deficit (37-36) against Rubén Legazpi, but then finished with four: 40-37 in 28 (1.429/1.321). Dani Sánchez was leading comfortably the entire match against Peter Ceulemans. The Belgian showed his mental force and came back to two points (36-34), but then had to bow for the Spaniard: 40-37 in 27 (1.481/1.370).
The sixth match point for FC Porto came from Rui Costa, who defeated Jose Diego Garcia 40-26 in 38.
The most fireworks in the first sessions came from Dick Jaspers, who set the tone for a walk-over match with a lightning start (21-0 in 7) against Nikos Polychronopoulos. The Greek recovered slowly, fought back to 27-23, but Jaspers closed the match with his second run of ten: 40-28 in 15 (2.667/1.867).
Eddy Merckx was trailing the whole match against Sergio Jimenez, who already ran away with eleven in the fourth inning. In the last part, the Belgian clinched victory with some solid runs: 40-34 in 26.
Jean Paul de Bruijn crawled through the eye of the needle. On a 31-31 score, Carlos Crespo attacked with 7 to 38-31, De Bruijn could hardly have picked a better moment: he responded immediately with 8 and finished the match in the 29th inning: 40-38.
Davy Havere was by far the better in his match against Jose Maria Mas, from whom he ran away at 14-7 and 35-22 to 34-19 and eventually to 40-25 in 33.
The program continues tomorrow (Saturday) with the second group stage.
