3-Cushion
Javier Palazón saved the best for the last, Haeng Jik Kim seemed to have lost his freshness on the last day. The Spaniard and the Korean qualified this afternoon as the first layers in this round for the sessions in January and February in the Agipi Masters. They join Glenn Hofman and Pierre Soumagne, which also survived the preliminairies underway to the next round.
The elimination of the two French talents, Cédric Melnytschenko and Eric Tromas, was not all that surprising. Haeng Jik Kim finally is the junior world champion, Javier Palazón the number three at the World championship in Sluiskil this year.
The performances of the French players nevertheless were surprisingly well. Eric Tromas, the junior champion in France, who is arranging tours in the place of Versailles some days in a week, even defeated Haeng Jik Kim on the last day: 40-38 in 35 innings.
Melnytschenko played his best game against Tromas on the first day, which he won with an average of 1.379.
The two seeded players can look back on a strong tournament: Haeng Jik Kim excelled especially on the first day against Palazón with an average of 2,105 and a highest run of nine. It was his best outing on three days. He nevertheless finished with an average of 1.3456, which is exceptionally high for an eighteen year old talent.
He did'nt end the way he wanted. The disappointment dripped from his face after the lost match on the final day. ,,I think it was not a conditional problem'', he tried to explain, ,,but my concentration was not optimal.''
Javier Palazón ended the tournament in style, with a strong match against Melnytschenko (40-23 in 24 innings). He now is the only Spaniard who will return in the Masters next year. Dani Sánchez and his compatriot Ruben Legazi were eliminated in the previous round in an extremely strong group with Torbjörn Blomdahl and Dion Nelin.
Beside his strong performance in Schiltigheim and in Sluiskil (bronze after shutdown by Eddy Leppens), Palazón also plays in Spain on the highest level this year. Ruben Legazpi there is the number one on the ranking, Palazón is second, before Dani Sánchez, the world champion. ,,But Dani of course is by far the best player in Spain'', Javier Palazón hastened to say after his qualification.