3-Cushion
TRABZON - Two matchballs were not enough for the Italian Marco Zanetti, the Greek Nikos Polychronopoulos scored his very first in the evening match in which two players tried to share the best sixteen of the World Cup. The Greek was the last, his next opponent is his countryman Filipos Kasidokostas.
A review of the match is very interesting: the very fast playing Polychronopoulos already had a 2-0 lead just after half an hour, but Zanetti didn't like it at all to let himself lead to the slaughter.
He tied the score with two winning sets, seemed to come earlier at the finish in the fifth set than his opponent, but missed two matchballs on two difficult positions: one of them was a bankshot over five cushions.Polychronopoulos took his time in the nervous final phase, used a time-out and raised his cue into the air after he made the winning point.
It was by far the most exciting evening match, because in this last session Frédéric Caudron run in his usual fast pace over Ruben Legazpi to a 3-0 victory with 2.250 average, Sung-Won Choi had no problems with another Asian, the former world champioen Ryuuji Umeda (3-0, 1.956 average) and had Filipos Kasidokostas only in the first set needed a warm-up against Barry van Beers.
The Dutchman, who played a superb tournament in Trabzon, won the first set, also made a run of eleven (the highest in this round), but then had to admit that the Greek was just a bridge to far.