3-Cushion
SANTA CRUZ - The final field for the World championship in Bolivia has gathered almost all world-class players for an exciting battle. The Vietnamese Minh Cam Ma was the very best in the pre-rounds with 4 match points and 2.580 of average. Jérémy Bury and Frédéric Caudron were the other high flyers: the Frenchman and the Belgium, coinciding the head players in the French team of La Baule, both starred in a 40-points-in-11 match. Haeng-Jik Kim was on top with the best run (17). The Vietnamese Quyet Chien Tran was the only player in the list of main contenders who was eliminated for a leading role.
For the knock-out, the sixteen winners and the sixteen numbers two show up in the final rounds. Among the best 32, there are 19 Europeans, 9 Asians, 5 Americans and one African. Sixteen players are out of the game and will not return to the arena. That includes the Europeans Tonny Carlsen and Jérôme Barbeillon, the South Americans Huberney Cataño and Javier Teran and the three Bolivian home players with a wildcard.
Minh Cam Ma (2.580), Frédéric Caudron (2.352), Jérémy Bury (2.352) and Tayfun Tasdemir (2.222) are followed by Torbjörn Blomdahl (1.904), Dani Sánchez (1.860) and Anh Vu Duong (1.702). Among the sixteen group winners, David Martinez (win over Polychronopoulos) and Anh Vu Duong (win against Heo) were the players who surprised the most. Jung-Han Heo was the best of the runners-up with 1.804.
The matches for the last 32 in the knock-out, this Friday evening:
14.00 (19.00 European time):
Ma-Capak
HJ Kim-Heo
Jaspers-Leppens
Coklu-Vera
16.00:
Martinez-Polychronopoulos
Blomdahl-Sacco
Merckx-Hofman
Tasdemir-Rudolph
18.00:
Caudron-Pennör
Nguyen Quoc Nguyen-Cho
Sánchez-Tellez
Choi-Piedrabuena
20.00:
Duong-Hong
Zanetti-Ngo
Sidhom-Diaz
Bury-Tsokantas
The group stage from A to P:
Flight A:
The first step has been made by Dani Sánchez in his mission on the way to new World's success. The group win was never in danger: the Spaniard showed his best against Tonny Carlsen just before and after the break: 6 and 8 for 32-15. Carlsen couldn't score higher than a 5: 40-30 in 18. For the top position, Sánchez defeated Christian Rudolph 40-25 in 25. The German goes on the knockout as second by beating Carlsen in his first match.
The final ranking in Group A:
1 Dani Sánchez 4-1.860-9
2 Christian Rudolph 2-1.031-6
3 Tonny Carlsen 0-1.178-5
Flight B:
Dick Jaspers first was the better of Japanese Sakai and beat Erick Tellez from Costa Rica on the second day. The finish of the Dutchman was tough: after 21-16 at the break, Jaspers needed ten innings for his last five points: 40-34 in 26. Erick Tellez comes along to the knockout by his win against Sakai .
The final ranking in Group B:
1 Dick Jaspers 4-1.666-7
2 Erick Tellez 2-1.213-9
3 Nobuyasu Sakai 0-1.000-5
Flight C:
Marco Zanetti's start was not impressive: 8-4 in 7 against Jose Luis Bleichner from Bolivia. The home player then went down when he scored 2 times in his next 12 innings: 20-13 at the break, 40-16 in 29 at the finish. The Italian found his rhythm in the second session against Dionisis Tsokantas, 20-10 in 8 at the break and 40-17 in 20. The Greek comes along to the last 32.
The final ranking in Group C:
1 Marco Zanetti 4-1.632-8
2 Dionisis Tsokantas 2-0.934-7
3 Jose Luis Bleichner 0-0.514-4
Group D:
The warming up against Huberney Cataño did not bother Frédéric Caudron (18-16 at the stop). In the final part, the Belgian flaunted with 7, 2 and 3: 40-32 in 23. The second match against Guido Sacco was spectacular: Caudron dashed off with 10 from the break and 11 in his third for 21-2 in three innings. The final shot of 5 brought Caudron to 40-11 in 11, one of the highlights from the pre-rounds. Sacco comes with him to the main tournament, Cataño couldn't live up to the expectations.
The final ranking in Group D:
1 Frédéric Caudron 4-2.352-11
2 Guido Sacco 2-1.133-5
3 Huberney Cataño 0-1.245-9
Flight E:
Haeng-Jik Kim's supremacy was less big than expected. The young Korean had a slow start against Jin Pyo Hong (12 in 13), but then starred with 17 in the 14th inning, the best run so far. The victory, 40-15 in 18, was comfortable. Arnim Kahofer lost his first against, but surprised in his second against Haeng-Jik Kim. The Austrian was still down 22-13 and 30-23 (in 18). Then the Korean stagnated (7 in his last 12 innings). Kahofer benefited and won 40-37 in 30. Yet, on average, Kim reached the final rounds.
The final ranking in Group E:
1 Haeng-Jik Kim 2-1.604-17
2 Jin Pyo Hong 2-1.309-9
3 Arnim Kahofer 2-1.259-10
Flight F:
With two to six-runs before the break, Torbjörn Blomdahl came out of the starting blocks in first match against Javier Teran (loser against Fernando Diaz). The final score: 40-33 in 26. The Swede overpowered his opponent Diaz with 13 at the start and led 20-6 in 3 at the break. The finish after that brilliant start was more difficult: run 5, 5 misses, run 5 for 40-30 in 16. The Colombian Diaz was a strong runner-up with 1.627 average. Javier Teran was not on his best.
The final ranking in Group F:
1 Torbjörn Blomdahl 4-1.904-13
2 Fernando Diaz 2-1.627-8
3 Javier Teran 0-1.113-5
Flight G:
David Martinez had a poor wake up against Jan Hudak: 8-7 in 18, but won 40-20 in 37. The second of the Spaniard, against Nikos Polychronopoulos, couldn't impress either at the start: 20-12 in 8. The final sprint was for Martinez with 9, 6 and 7 runs in the second part for 40-36 in 16. Polychronopoulos goes along as the runner-up.
The final ranking in Group G:
1 David Martinez 4-1.509-9
2 Nikos Polychronopoulos 2-1.583-9
3 Jan Hudak 0-0.710-5
Flight H:
Jérémy Bury was one of the stars in the pre-rounds. In his match with Seo, the Frenchman led 25-8 in 5 after 13 and 4 runs. He finished after 5, 4 and 5 in the second stage 40-21 in 11. Dinh Nai Ngo goes to the knock-out but was out of control against Bury, 40-23 in 29.
The final ranking in Group H:
1 Jérémy Bury 4-2.352-13
2 Dinh Nai Ngo 2-1.500-6
3 Hyun Min Seo 0-1.558-7
Flight I:
Murat Naci Coklu finished it off with the maximum score. In the final part of his match against Glenn Hofman, the Turkish number one was still threatened. Coklu led 25-12 at the break and saw Hofman level the match in the last inning with a run of 6: 38-38. In the same inning, Coklu went out with 2: 40-40-38 in 27.
The final ranking in Group I:
1 Murat Naci Coklu 4-1.666-8
2 Glenn Hofman 2-1.591-10
3 Jérôme Barbeillon 0-1.116-4.
Flight J:
The well known regularity was once again the strongest weapon of Eddy Merckx in his first performances: without highlights, the Belgian took his first wins against Turk Can Capak (40-18 in 24) and Argentine Carlos Zarate (40-32 in 31). In his first match, Merckx scored runs of 9 and 7, in his second he didn't run more than 4. Can Capak is the number two, though he was'nt in great form: below one average.
The final ranking in Group J:
1 Eddy Merckx 4-1.454-9
2 Can Capak 2-0.906-6
3 Carlos Zarate 0-0.904-5
Flight K:
Sameh Sidhom and Riad Nady had a promising start (Sidhom with 3, 9 and 6, Nady with 8 in his first inning). The second part, after 20-11 in 8, was a tactical battle between two players knowing each other very well. Sidhom won 40-29 in 29. David Pennör then defeated Nady, good for second place. And Sidhom was just a bit better than the Swede in his second match: 40-36 in 33.
The final ranking in Group K:
1 Sameh Sidhom 4-1.290-9
2 David Pennör 2-1.000-5
3 Riad Nady 0-0.805-8
Flight L:
The Vietnamese Anh Vu Duong showed his best moment in the match with Jung-Han Heo when he attacked with 13 for an eventual win 40-35 in 15. The Italian Emilio Sciacca was just a bit player in this flight with 0.466 average over two matches. Jung-Han Heo was the logical number two. Duong defeated Sciacca 40-11 in 33.
The final ranking in Group L:
1 Anh Vu Duong 4-1.702-13
2 Jung-Han Heo 2-1.804-7
3 Emilio Sciacca 0-0.466-4
The final ranking in Group M:
1 Nguyen Quoc Nguyen 4-1.454-7
2 Pedro Piedrabuena 2-1.500-8
3 Juan Carlos Cartagena 0-0.859-6
Flight N:
What a powerful show of the Vietnamese Minh Cam Ma: he turned out to be the best winner of the preliminary rounds with wins in 18 and 13. In his last match against Javier Vera, Ma had a blistering start with 12 in his second and 9 in the third inning: 21-1 in 3. The match ended with a huge advantage for the Vietnamese (40-7 in 13). That brought him to an average of 2.580 over two matches. In his first game, Ma beat his countryman Quyet Chien Tran in 18. Tran was the third and was outplayed.
The final ranking in Group N:
1 Minh Cam Ma 4-2.580-14
2 Javier Vera 2-1.382-2
3 Quyet Chien Tran 0-1.461-6
Flight O:
The bizarre last match ended in an incredible loss for Eddy Leppens. The Belgian had one of his traditional strong starts against Sung-Won Choi, 26-5 in 9 after a run of 10. But Leppens stopped scoring in the second part and saw Choi slowly return: first to 35-20, to 37-30 and finally to 39-38. The Belgian only made 13 points in his last sixteen innings after his 26 in 9. Sung-Won Choi seized the win 40-39 in 25.
The final ranking in Group O:
1 Sung-Won Choi 4-1.600-6
2 Eddy Leppens 2-1.490-10
3 Jesus Salazar 0-0.638-3
Flight P:
The high technician Tayfun Tasdemir showed his best in his ultimate match. The Korean Jae-Ho Cho was overwhelmed in a quick match. Tasdemir led 20-14 in 7, extended to 32-15 in 9 and scored 40-23 in the 14th inning. The group win and high average (2.222) brought Tasdemir into the top five of the prelims. In his first match, he defeated Bolivian Amilcar in 22. Jae-Ho was also a comfortable winner against Tapia (40 in 25) goes as the runner-up to the knockout.
The final ranking in Group P:
1 Tayfun Tasdemir 4-2.222-10
2 Jae-Ho Cho 2-1.615-10
3 Amilcar Tapia 0-0.787-3.
