3-Cushion
ANTALYA -,,I don't wish to meet a Korean player in the draw'', said Jef Philipoom on the day before he left for the World Cup in Antalya. Korean players are like black beasts for the Belgian, the former world champion who's such a wonderful billiard player, but sometimes so fragile with his confidence.
The way it turned out with the draw, couldn't make him very happy. Farouk Barki pulled a Koraan opponet for Philipoom out of the crystal ball, the always imperturbable Dong Koong Kang, one of the top five players in his country.
,,Black beast'', that's the classical phrase for a very feared and almost unbeatable opponent. Jef Philipoom was so close to the feeling that he could beat this Korean, but stranded on one carom of the finish. A very technical ball, repelled over the entire length of the table, almost without spin, dragging along the long cushion, but just not good enough for a score.
Dong Koong Kang jumped up, went to the table for two points, made his first and finished with a ball that he hardly couldn't miss: so a 3-2 score for the Koraan, 15-14 in the decisive set. Jef Philipoom met another black beast in his long career.
He must have spoken long after his match about the start of the Korean in the deciding set. Two lucky balls brought Kang up to a 4-0 lead, then the road to success seemed to lay open.
The Belgian had a poor start of the match (13-15, 15-15), but repared with two winning sets (15-9 15-10). He smelled his chances, could close the gap in the fifth, but couldn't find the luck for a finish in the sight of the harbor.
The way Filipos Kasidokostas fought back after trailing 1-0 in his first match of the main tournament was very impressive. The Greek responded amazingly to the start of the Spaniard Jose Maria Mas: he ran flat out to the finish in the second from the break off, but missed the fifteenth point by a whisker.
The former world champion then simply took the win in the match and was with 2.521 average the big hitter in the first round.
The session was very exciting on three of the four tables: Dick Jaspers showed himself the cold fish as he always is. He needed all his power to stop Raimond Burgman, the eternal Dutch number two, who he beat in January this year in the national championship without any troubles.
Jaspers started 15-11 in 7 now, was rebuffed then by 5-15 in 4, took the lead again with 15-6 in 6 (after an opening run of 10) but still was not released from his opponent, who levelled the mat with 7-15 in 4 innings (after 12-0 in 2).
Then the real master stood up again: Jaspers finished the match 15-5 in 5 innings. The Dutch game was of a very high level: Jaspers played 2.375, Burgman 2.000.
Jean Paul de Bruijn started fast and furious in his duel with another Korean, Sung-Won Choi. The Dutchman felt himself as the underdog and played freely in the first set, that he won 15-6 (3.750 average). He remained for a while around 3 average in the second, but when the Korean took the second 15-11 (8 ), the resistance seemed to be broken.
De Bruijn showed one more revival, winning 15-13 in the third and pulling up the score to 2-1. He lost again in the fourth 15-2 and was down for the count. The mental breakdown cost him the match: Choi dominated the deciding set and won 15-9 (averages 1.488/1.209).