3-Cushion
VIENNA - The tears of emotion were pouring down his cheeks a few minutes after the match. Julian Morales worked up in his seat the very finest moment of his career so far. He had just won the match against the Greek former world champion Filipos Kasidokostas. The small Colombian could not believe that he did it, so happy he was with his great performance.
The 27-year-old player from Pereira, the father of a son of five, has not been spoiled by successes on the international circuit. He was Pan American champion in 2010, defeated Kyung-Roul Kim at the world championships that year in Sluiskil and was in the Trabzon World Cup this season leading 2-0 against Eddy Merckx, but lost 3-2 against the later winner of the tournament.
,,I'm a happy man'', he sobbed after his last carom against Kasidokostas and had won the five-setter with a final sprint: 15-8. ,,The day has been very long, I was tired and playing against Kasidokostas, a big name for me. So this is something special, that's why I can't hide my emotions.''
With Kasidokostas in the evening matches there was killed another player from the top, after Eddy Merckx, Tayfun Tasdemir, Jérémy Bury, Martin Horn, Jae Ho Cho, Kyung-Roul Kim and Jung Han Heo earlier on the day. The numbers five until nine of the world have been eliminated so far.
Kyung-Roul Kim was beaten in the same round in a grueling battle by Nikos Polychronopoulos, the Greek who had after two sets a disadvantage (2-0, fought himself back to 2-2 and then, after the break, showed his spirit in the deciding set. The last point of the fifth set seemed to be a kind of liberation: after the elimination of Kasidokostas he and Papakonstantinou have to hold up the Greek honor.
Roland Forthomme won, as expected, against Sameh Sidhom, although he was in troubles for a while after two winning sets. The Belgian lost the third set and won the fourth, as usual in this tournament, with a small endrush.
Lütfi Cenet defeated one of the Koreans who have climbed up in the rankings last year. Heo Jung Han only was stronger than his opponent in the first set. The Turk, who's the only player left from his country in the tournament, won the following sets 15-14, 15-12 and 15-6 (average 1.540 to 1.305 ).