3-Cushion
SCHILTIGHEIM - The night of the high runs was there. In a session with two Korean players and one Japanese the billiard fans put their hands together for Ryuuji Umeda and Sung-Won Choi, both with a run of eleven, and for Kyung-Roul Kim with a run of ten. For sure it was the session of Choi, who beat his countryman Kyung-Roul Kim 50-41 in 25 innings. Ryuuji Umeda on the other table had some little problems with the strong playing Jérôme Barbeillon, but at the end the Japanes took the win with 50-46 in 29 innings.
Three high runs gave the first evening session shine and brilliance, in two matches with some tension at the end. Jérôme Barbeillon had a fighting chance to beat Ryuuji Umeda on an adventage of 35-33. The Japanes on his turn, after he made a run of eleven in the first part, seemed to be on his way to an easy win, but he only could make the decider when Barbeillon was on 46 and missed a simple shot on a crucial moment.
The 33-year old Sung-Won Choi is the coming man from Korea, a sympathetic man who is playing as a professional for seven years. He won the bronze medal on the World championship in Sluiskil after had beaten Luis Aveiga and Torbjörn Blomdahl and only had lost in the semi final against the later champion Dani Sánchez.
Sung-Won Choi is, what we can say, a late bloomer, because he did not play many Worldcups until now. He shined a few times in the Sang Lee tournament and now has entered the top twelve of the ranking, where he displaced Marco Zanetti.
In his first performance in the Agipi Masters the imperturbable Choi showed his high class and nerves of steel. And as Sung-Kyu Oh, one of the specialists in Korean three cushion said, his enormous talent. Choi kept the balance in the score with Kyung Roul Kim until twenty points each (in fourteen innings), but then took an adventage by a run of eleven. The gap was enough to beat Kim later on with 50-41.