Greek Nikos shows he is still a wonderful player

The predicted it would be the group of death and after tonight really everything is still possible. Frédéric Caudron recovered from his defeat at the first day against Eddy Merckx and Nikos Polychronopoulos defeated Torbjörn Blomdahl in a thrilling final.

The only one who could laugh in the stand of the arena was Eddy Merckx. The Belgian, who won two matches, needs just one more victory tomorrow and gets two chances: against Haeng Jik Kim and Torbjörn Blomdahl.

Torbjörn Blomdahl is after his loss in the evening session against Polychronopoulos (50-47 in 32 innings) back on the edge of the abyss, although the Swede escaped miraculously in the previous round by beating Ruben Legazpi first and later on Dani Sánchez.

The chances to survive are still in his own hand tomorrow, but two Belgians will do everything to prevent it. Caudron is at 14.00 the first opponent of Blomdahl, then he finds Merckx on his way.

The group can also turn out in many other directions. Caudron won tonight against Haeng Jik Kim (50-27 in 21), but faces Blomdahl and Polychronopoulos to qualify after his unfortunate start.

And even Nikos Polychronopoulos, the 33-year-old Greek, who started with a bad batch and a loss to Haeng Jik Kim, then was defeated by an irresistible Merckx, brought himself back in the race against Blomdahl. Nikos needed three match balls, the first of them narrowly was missed. Then he finished with a sigh of relief.

The Greek said afterwards that his biggest problem is the motivation last year and this year. ,,We play very few games in our country and the federation has no money for us. If I was Dutch or Belgian, I could have been a professional player. For us in Greece this is impossible and that makes it difficult for many of us to train hard and keep the shape.''

Moreover, Polychronopoulos has a billiard room in Athens in which he often works fifteen hours a day. ,,And my wife Vaso and I expect our first baby in May'', he said with a big smile. ,,That's more important at the moment.''

Nevertheless it was good to see for the audience that Nikos still is a wonderful billiard player who can captivate the public with his attractive game. ,,I will do everything to return here, but I need a little luck tomorrow.''