3-Cushion
SEOUL - The relief did not come from the billiards arena, but from the training room where players were following the matches. Nikos Polychronopoulos clenched fists when little boy Myung-Woo Cho missed a sixth and decisive carom in the last seconds and therefore just missed the qualification. The Greek, until then the best number two in the second chance matches, jumped up from his chair. He shook hands with Martin Horn and Sameh Sidhom and finally knew - after the high tension in the last phase, that he would return to the final round of the 3CC Survival on Saturday and Sunday in Incheon with sixteen players and a total prize money of 220.000 euro. From the number one to the number sixteen descending from 50.000 to 6.000 euro.
He slipped through the eye of the needle, Nikos Polychronopoulos, in the sessions in which Martin Horn, Hugo Patiño and Sung-Won Choi entered the finals as the group winners. He was the best number two, Polychronopoulos, in the group with Horn, who gained 72 points, Myung-Woo Cho, with 69 end Jérémy Bury with 67. So close was the fight for the last qualifying spot. Polychronopoulos: ,,It was incredibly exciting and I was so happy that I finally knew that I had qualified.''
The outcome eventually led to the following group classification for the first finals:
14.00 Korean time:
Group 1:
Jung-Han Heo, Murat Naci Coklu, Jae-Ho Cho and Nikos Polychronopoulos
Group 2, 16.00:
Torbjörn Blomdahl, Sameh Sidhom, Semih Sayginer, Hugo Patiño
Group 3, 19.00:
Dinh Nai Ngo, Marco Zanetti, Dani Sánchez, Martin Horn
Group 4, 21.00:
Dong-Koong Kang, Dick Jaspers, Frédéric Caudron, Sung-Won Choi.
Martin Horn was the first to advance from the first group: ,,The feeling of being back among the top players is wonderful'', he commented in the practice room. The German is looking forward to the fight with sixteen finalists. ,,I was not allowed to play the World championship in Cairo by the German federation, which is ridiculous. That's why I'm happy that I can play here with the world top.'' Horn, who's back at the World Cup cycle this year back, defeated in his group the Greek Nikos Polychronopoulos and the two Vietnamese Nguyen Quoc Nguyen and Quyet Chien Tran with 84 points in 16 innings and 1.937 on average.
The second chance matches after the first day, in which twelve players advanced themselves directly, paved the way for four other players: three group winners and the best number two. After Horn, also Hugo Patiño, Sung-Won Choi and Nikos Polychronopoulos may compete for the big money on Saturday. The two finalists in the previous 3CC Masters, Eddy Merckx and Eddy Leppens, are eliminated for the final round.
Martin Horn: ,,The system at the Survival is exciting. Even if you are far down, you can come back into the match with a high run. I think for Kozoom's viewers, it's really amazing, especially with the tension in the last five minutes.''
Hugo Patiño, who also is not invited for the World Championship by the USA federation, used the same words in his comment: ,,It's really fantastic that I received a wildcard. And that I was able to come up on top in a strong group with Eddy Merckx, Tayfun Tasdemir and Jérémy Bury.''
Eddy Merckx was not at his best for the first time in months and missed out the finals. That also applied to Eddy Leppens in the last group, in which he finished third behind a disappointing HaengJik Kim. Sung-Won Choi was the best in points (108) and average: 2.785.
The rankings of the three groups in the second chance mathes:
Group 1:
1 Martin Horn 84-16-1.937
2 Nikos Polychronopoulos 72-16-1.750
3 Nguyen Quoc Nguyen 44-16-1.312
4 Quyet Chien Tran 40-16-1.250
Group 2
1 Hugo Patiño 75-20-1.250
2 Jérémy Bury 67-20-1.150
3 Eddy Merckx 59-20-1.050
4 Tayfun Tasdemir 39-20-0.800
Group 3:
1 Sung-Won Choi 108-14-2.785
2 Myung-Woo Cho 69-14-2.071
3 Eddy Leppens 50-14-1.785
4 HaengJik Kim 13-14-1.000.
The top 8 on the ranking in average from the first qualification day:
1 Jung-Han Heo 2.750
2 Torbjörn Blomdahl 2.333
3 Murat Naci Coklu 2.000
4 Marco Zanetti 1.933
5 Sameh Sidhom 1.833
6 Dick Jaspers 1.444
7 Jae-Ho Cho 1.600
8 Nguyen Quoc Nguyen 1.600.
