3-Cushion
CAIRO - The Vietnamese supremacy at the World championship three cushion in Cairo was the most remarkable achievement on the first day of the knockout phase with 32 finalists. Four of the five Vietnamese survived the first battles of strength, five of the six Koreans had to leave the stage. Torbjörn Blomdahl defeated one of his big European rivals, Marco Zanetti, in a high performance (40-21 in 17). Frédéric Caudron was superior in the fight between the number one and number three of the world and defeated HaengJik Kim 40-23 in 18. Dick Jaspers was, like in the pre-rounds, the best winner in his one way match with Ahmed Abdallah, 40-8 in 13 innings and Tonny Carlsen continued his advance with a smooth victory against Korean Seo.
The two most exciting matches ended in a shoot-out. Semih Sayginer lost his big margin against Sung-Won Choi (23-7) and was finally able to equalize (40-40 in 21). The Korean missed from the spots, Sayginer scored and won the match. The Vietnamese clash between Quyet Chien Tran and Anh Vu Duong also ended in a draw (40-40 in 20). In the shoot-out, Duong was defeated by Tran 2-1.
It was the last match on a day in which Dick Jaspers set the tone in the early session with a walk-over playing Ahmed Abdallah. The Egyptian, who after a 12 by Jaspers faced a hateful 25-0 at the break and finally scored eight times, 40-8 in 13. Sameh Sidhom also had a smooth start against Dong-Koong Kang (20-3 in 4) and crowned his strong match 40-22 in 17. Spaniard Ruben Legazpi set the pace in his match with Eddy Merckx in the final part and outplayed the Belgian number two of the world with a run of six to the finish (40-30 in 24).
The Korean exodus was announced with the loss of Kang, followed by Hyun Min Seo (eliminated by Tonny Carlsen 40-22 in 16), Sung-Won Choi (punished for the miss in the shoot-out against Sayginer) Jae-Ho Cho, who ran in the sword of an excellent Jérémy Bury, 40-32 in 18) and finally HaengJik Kim, trumped by Frédéric Caudron. The only Korean who returns for the last sixteen is Jung-Han Heo who bested Murat Celik (40-14 in 14).
The Asian dominance came from the Vietnamese, who entered the last sixteen with Dinh Nai Ngo, Minh Cam Ma, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen and Quyet Chien. Most striking was Nguyen's victory over Dani Sánchez (40-37 in 20). The Turkish squad is with two players in the next round: Tayfun Tasdemir was the better of Murat Naci Coklu 40-30 in 22 and will join Semih Sayginer on the stage with sixteen.
Young Japanese Yusuke Mori was beaten by Eddy Leppens (40-23 in 22) and Filippos Kasidokostas left the stage after a loss against the only South American still in the field. Robinson Morales played his best match so far and beat the Greek 40-30 in 21.
The matches in the last sixteen on Friday:
12.00:
Jaspers-Legazpi
Tasdemir-Sidhom
Ngo-Carlsen
Leppens-Sayginer
14.00:
Ma-Blomdahl
Nguyen-Heo
Morales-Tran
Caudron-Bury.
Torbjörn Blomdahl riant winner in clash with Marco Zanetti
Jung-Han Heo, the only Korean in the field with 16 finalists
Ruben Legazpi outplayed the world's number 2 Eddy Merckx
Dick Jaspers, best player in the first round
Frédéric Caudron, strong win against the world's nr 3 HaengJik Kim
Tonny Carlsen, another strong performance
Robinson Morales, last South American in the best sixteen
Quyet Chien Tran beat his countryman Duong in the shoot-out