3-Cushion
LUXOR – Jean Paul de Bruijn feels fine in Luxor, and so do Frédéric Caudron and Eddy Merckx. The fourth member and second Dutchman in the dream team, Dick Jaspers, was made to sweat. He barely escaped from being eliminated by Egyptian Riad Nady. Jaspers looked like he was playing against himself, most of the time. He threw his chalk in the air, shook his head and was annoyed by his opponents' flukes. Only when it got really dangerous (35-23 to Nady) could he show the fighting spirit he is so famous for.
Truth be told, the Egyptian could not handle the pressure, which helped Jaspers to mount a decisive comeback: 40-37 in 25 innings. Jean Paul de Bruijn, who beat Korean Heo on penalties, spoke about the plans with the team at the end of the season. The four players, together owners of last week's fantastic new world record team average, want to keep playing together next year. ’The team's main mission for now is the Europa Cup for teams. ,,We want that European title’’, says De Bruijn. ,,We agreed to make that a priority. We know of course, that with this team we are in with a chance of winning it.’’
The first serious day of play in the Luxor World Cup brought out the best in HaengJik Kim and Torbjörn Blomdahl (both 2.857 average), Frédéric Caudron (2.222) and Sung-Won Choi (2.000). Other than the young Korean, players from the world's top-5. Roland Forthomme, Torbjörn Blomdahl and HaengJik Kim had a fairly unobstructed route to the next round. The Belgian beat Emrullah Basegmez 40-14 in 24, the Korean did exactly the same to Kang in 14 innings, and the Swede was not troubled at all by the still inconsistent Chi-Yeon Cho: 40-13 in 14.
Most of the tension was between Jean Paul de Bruijn and Jung Han Heo, where penalties were necessary to determine the winner, and in the Bury - Zanetti match, where the Frenchman took full advantage of a bad spell in his opponent's play. Pedro Piedrabuena nailed the otherwise so vivid Tasdemir to his chair as he made his first 29 points. Then, the Turk had had enough of it, he took charge with a run of thirteen, got level at 29-29 and was unstoppable to the finish: 40-32 in 22 to Tayfun.
Dani Sánchez had to dig deep to stay ahead of Greek wildcard Filippos Kasidokostas, who is out of the top 12. The final stages of the match were nerve wrecking, with the Spaniard making single points and the Greek being unlucky at times. Adnan Yüksel pulled one out of the hat, when he was about level against Jae Ho Cho but defeated the Korean with a closing run of eleven: 40-27 in 23.
Frédéric Caudron was miles ahead of Murat Tüzul (40-19 in 18) and Nikos Polychronopoulos was not his flash best against Christian Rudolph, but he did win 40-34 in 33. Eddy Merckx was even far from his best, but certainly better than Tran in the closing stages of the match: 40-27 in 27. Sameh Sidhom, the last Egyptian in the tournament, had no chance against Lütfi Cenet, who impressed with a nine in the penultimate inning: 40-28 in 22.
Dani Sánchez starting his final rush in the match against Kasidokostas.
Tomorrow's matches:
Friday 11.00:
Sung-Won Choi-Jean Paul de Bruijn
HaengJik Kim-Jérémy Bury
Roland Forthomme-Adnan Yüksel
Torbjörn Blomdahl-Nikos Polychronopoulos
13.00 uur:
Frédéric Caudron-Hyung Bum Hwang
Dick Jaspers-Murat Naci Coklu
Lütfi Cenet-Eddy Merckx
Dani Sánchez-Tayfun Tasdemir.
Torbjörn Blomdahl in zijn partij waarin hij in veertien beurten finishte en een serie van zestien maakte.