Carom
BRANDENBURG - The audience in the playing room of the European championship can prepare for a new big clash between two top players in the world, who are team mates in Agipi: Marco Zanetti and Frédéric Caudron. They met each other in the last Agipi final and the final of the Masters Billard Lausanne. Twice Zanetti was the winner. Tomorrow (Sunday, 10.00) they face again, this time in the semi-finals of the European championship.
The other semi-final match is the big surprise of the tournament: the German Christian Rudolph is performing in the form of his best years, the Dutchman Glenn Hofman is a rookie at this stage.
The 23-year-old Dutchman defeated the title holder Filippos Kasidokostas, who made a big gap in the middle of the match, but lost that margin in the final innings. Hofman took his chances and grabbed the win with a closing run of five.
The fight between Marco Zanetti and Dick Jaspers was the highlight of the quarter finals. The Italian, who defeated the top players one by one in the major tournaments this year, showed again his outstanding class.
Dick Jaspers led the match after a promising start 21-10, when Zanetti suddenly attacked with a run of fourteen and ran to a 24-21 lead. The miss on the fifteenth point was unlucky because of a kiss just before the carom.
Zanetti built up the margin, got his first matchpoint at 39-28, missed three times by a whisker, but finished 40-33 in 17 innings.
Christian Rudolph led the whole match against Roland Forthomme, and won 40-26 in 18 innings after another amazing match.
Frédéric Caudron’s victory against Murat Naci Coklu was never in danger (40-29 in 20). He was one of the high fliers on this first day with his brilliant playing style. The two average in his last match shows that he is ready for a new clash with Zanetti.
Yet, Caudron says: ,,I do not feel that I play very well, but if I win, it's good enough.''
The matches for the semifinals tomorrow at 10:00:
Zanetti Caudron
Rudolph-Hofman.