Merckx and Caudron never played final in Belgium

Eddy Merckx seemed to have a breeze to reach the finals, Frédéric Caudron had to climb to the top to win his match in the semi finals this afternoon. The Belgian championship nonetheless gets the final that most connoisseurs had predicted. Caudron and Merckx are playing for the title tomorrow.
That's a finale which, strangely enough, was never played before in this championship. Caudron was six times champion, but never in a final against Merckx. And Merckx won the title five times, but never against Caudron.
Eddy Merckx won the semi final battle this afternoon against Peter de Backer in three sets. The score seems simply (15-10, 15-9 and 15-13), but the reigning champion had to be in his best shape for sure. De Backer showed himself a tough competitor, especially in the final set, in which Merckx had to catch up with one of his dreaded runs. He won the match with the highest average of the four semi-finalists: 1,956. De Backer was playing 1.523.
Frédéric Caudron had much more difficulties to bar Ronny Brants on his way to the finale. His opponent made the match attractive until the very last set after having missed four set points in the fourth set.
,,I can not blame myself, I played great'', Brants noted afterwards. ,,And if I had a only one chance to make the set point, then the match had been open again. But the positions were impossible to make the set ball.''
Frédéric Caudron finally seized the chance to win the game, after 14-15, 15-3, 15-10 in the first three sets. Brants made a terrific start in the fourth set, first made a run of eight and then six in the second inning. So after two innings the score was 14-1.
Caudron escaped in a miraculous way, first with a run of eight to 14-9, to 14-10 and finally to a final run of four to 15-14.
The average of the winner was 1.903, Ronny Brants played 1.400.
The dream final is scheduled tomorrow at 14.30. Caudron didn't play a final in three cushion since four years in Blankenberge, Merckx won twice in those four years, once in the final against Roland Forthomme, last year against Eddy Leppens.
Caudron lost in this championship in his career three finals in three-cushion, Merckx led only one defeat, in 1999 against Raymond Ceulemans.