3-Cushion
ISTANBUL - The Turkish clash between Tayfun Tasdemir and Murat Naci Coklu ended in surprising victory by Coklu. Two meetings between the Netherlands and Belgium remained in balance, because Dick Jaspers defeated Frédéric Caudron and Roland Forthomme bested Jean Paul de Bruijn.
The World Cup in Istanbul continues to the finals with two Belgians, two Spaniards, one Turk, one Dutchman, one Korean and one Vietnamese. Dani Sánchez took the win against Jung Han Heo in a thrilling final (40-38 in 19), Quyet Chien Tran against his compatriot Xuan Cuong Ma (40-38 in 31) and the Spanish revelation Carlos Crespo 40-37 (in 20) is into the best eight after beating Pedro Piedrabuena.
Murat Naci Coklu brought the Turkish audience in ecstasy with his great finish against Tayfun Tasdemir, the man in form in recent weeks. Coklu outplayed his countryman 40-37 in 24 innings.
Dick Jaspers ran away from Frédéric Caudron, who had an exceptionally poor start (24-3 in 9), eventually came back with seven and eight, but the Dutchman took the win 40-29 in 23. Roland Forthomme left Jean Paul de Bruijn far behind with a thirteen run in the first innings and closed the match 40-23 at 17. Therefore he was the best winner in this round.
The Korean Jae Ho Cho was the better of Quoc Nguyen Nguyen 40-35 in 22, Eddy Merckx disturbed the ambitions of another Korean, Hyung Bum Hwang, 40-34 in 33.
The matches for the quarter-finals (Turkish time):
17.00:
Forthomme-Sánchez
Cho-Merckx
19.00:
Jaspers-Crespo
Tran-Coklu.
Roland Forthomme, best man in this round
Dick Jaspers got the better of Frédéric Caudron
Jae Ho Cho
Carlos Crespo