3-Cushion
GRAVELINES - Jérôme Barbeillon achieved his tenth victory in a national ranking tournament in Gravelines this weekend. In the final match, the Andernos player beat the other finalist, Mikaël Devogelaere, 40 to 36 in 30 innings. The tournament was the first of five national meetings for the French players in the new season. Jérémy Bury, the French champion, was not among the participants. He has not played national tournaments since two years.
Fabrice Puigvert and Hector Marin Echeverry were eliminated by the two finalists in the semi-finals. Barbeillon beat Echeverry 40-21 in 31, Devogelaere outplayed Puigvert 40-29 in 39. In the quarterfinals, Nathan Duriez, Marc Boigneres, Adrien Tachoire and Frédéric Roelants were eliminated. Tachoire, who defeated Melnytschenko and Roxo in the final run-up to the quarter-finals, felt a little sick in his match against Echeverry.
At the stage of the main table on Saturday, some of the favorites went down, like Gwendal Maréchal, Jean Reverchon and Tachoire. Nathan Duriez surprised by beating Jean Reverchon 35-34 and Kevin Pérottin 35-28.
Jérôme Barbeillon finished with the best average of the tournament at 1.283, Mikaël Devogelaere 1.120, Fabrice Puigvert 1.020, Marin Echeverry 0.989, Nathan Duriez was 5th with 1.142, Frédéric Roelants 6th with 1.273, Adrien Tachoire 7th with 1.009 and Marc Boingnères 8th with 0.978.