3-Cushion
IZMIR - The last four players for the World's junior stage in three cushion come from two countries with a huge tradition and one country that actually has only one big world star. Two Koreans, Myung-Woo Cho and Daehyeon Jang, compete for the title of the world's best players under 22 years this Sunday. The opposition comes primarily from the reigning champion, the Spaniard Carlos Anguita and surprisingly from an 18-year-old Italian, Alessio d'Agata, from the country where Marco Zanetti is lonely at the top. Cho plays against D'Agata in the first semi-final (10.00 Turkish time), Anguita two hours later against Jang.
The tradition continues with an authentic Europe-Korean fight, in which Myung-Woo Cho and Carlos Anguita are the big contenders based on experience. The 21-year old Spaniard was crowned world champion last year, the 20-year-old Korean two years ago. The other two semi-finalists are rookies on the podium. Jang, from the same age as Cho, the Italian, 18, is the youngest of the final field. Two inexperienced players, underdogs, but not to be underestimated.
The two Colombians, Ocampo and Vasquez, were knocked out in the quarter finals, like Dutchman Joey de Kok and Frenchman Maxime Panaia. The other Frenchman, Gwendal Maréchal, who was on stage last year, was eliminated in the pre-rounds, in which also Spaniard Mercador played a disappointing tournament. The quarterfinals were much lower in average than the preliminaries, although the four players played around and above one average.
Myung-Woo Cho showed his vulnerable side for the first time in the quarters when the wonder boy face an 8-0 deficit after five innings in the match against Colombian Santiago Ocampo. A salient detail: a few hours before, Cho had finished the 25 points in five innings. Yet he won the match, in the knock-outs to 35 points, pretty comfortable, but far from spectacular as in his other flashy performances in five and seven innings: now the score was 35-18 in 27. He was still better than the other three finalists. Alessio d'Agata beat Vasquez in 30 innings (35-25 in 30), Anguita beat De Kok in 30 innings and Jang outplayed Panaia in 33 innings (35-26).
Joey de Kok had a better start than his opponent, with runs of 5 and 3 for an 8-2 lead and had chances to survive unt the 20th inning. When Anguita attacked with 8, the resistance was broken. Alessio d'Agata made the gap with Vasquez by a run of nine, which brought him from 14-13 to 23-15. That was decisive for the victory. Jang and Panaia went right up to 18-16, the final sprint of the Korean was better than his young opponent's finish.
Alessio d'Agata, suddenly among the junior stars
Myung-Woo Cho showed his vunerable side after two world performances
Carlos Anguita (left) outplayed the Dutchman Joey de Kok