3-Cushion
The Japanese emperor and the Dutch king of three cushion are preparing themselves for a promising match in the evening session. Kouji Funaki showed in his match with Martin Horn that he isn't afraid of anyone in the world circuit. Dick Jaspers made a quick end to the illusions of Marco Zanetti in this tournament.
Jaspers used the pace of a greyhound in his scoring instinct, after the Italian had put him on a 8-0 disadvantage in the first set, but nevertheless the score was on 15-10 for Jaspers in nine inning. Then, with runs of six and nine the number one in the world finished his second set in two innings (15-0). He gave Zanetti just a little air to fight back to 2-1, but the finale in the match again was for Jaspers: 15-9 in four turns, an overall average of 2,000 to 1,416 for Zanetti.
Kouji Funaki is not a high class player in the ranking. The Japanese is now on place forty, just behind Michael Nilsson, Jean van Erp, Dion Nelin and Jean Paul de Bruijn. But in tournaments such as Hurghada, he is dangerous and feared by all the top players.
Martin Horn has experienced it this afternoon. The German was in four sets, all four were finished into ten innings, only once the winner (15-4 in the second), in the other three sets Funaki was the boss in sets: 15-10, 15-11 and 15-13.