3-Cushion
HURGHADA - The final day at the World Cup in Hurghada starts off with four finalists from whom Marco Zanetti has the best average over three previous matches: 2.222. The winner of last year in the Red Sea resort and currently number six on the world ranking played an impressive World Cup so far and was never in trouble in his matches against Eddy Leppens (40-25), Jin Pyo Hong (40-30) and Torbjörn Blomdahl (40-29).
Dani Sánchez was the one who survived penalty shots of the four finalists: the Spaniard and Tayfun Tasdemir played a thrilling match together which ended on 40-40 and was won by Sánchez in the shootouts (4-2). He didn't only win the match against Tasdemir, but also took the overall World Cup cycle over 2015. Sánchez beat in his three matches Semih Sayginer (40-29), Tolgahan Kiraz (40-27) and Tayfun Tasdemir (40-40) and averaged 1.764.
Frédéric Caudron was not really on his top in the first match against Jose Juan Garcia (40-31 in 26), but from then the Belgian, who won two years ago in Hurghada, found his rhythm with wins over Jung Han Heo (40-29 in 18) and Kostas Papakonstantinou (40-26 in 17). Caudron has 1.967 average.
Lütfi Cenet had a dazzling start in the tournament with a victory over Jae Ho Cho in ten innings. In the second round he bested Dick Jaspers 40-34 in 21 and in the quarterfinals Cenet outplayed the last Korean, Choong Bok Lee, 40-38 in 25 innings. Cenet played 2.142 over three matches.
The World Cup winner Dani Sánchez is the opponent of Torbjörn Blomdahl at the Super Cup and Player of the Year gala in Antwerp on 5 March, 2016.
The semi-final matches for today, Saturday:
11.00 (Egyptian time): Marco Zanetti-Dani Sánchez
13.00: Frédéric Caudron-Lütfi Cenet.
