3-Cushion
LAUSANNE - The winner of last year is still there, the number one in the world, a jovial German who we all miss so hard in the World Cup circuit and a Spaniard who put up a magical run of 21 on the table on a Saturday afternoon. The Lausanne Masters have gone into the final day with four great masters of three cushions.
The apotheosis in the Montbenon casino with Frédéric Caudron, Marco Zanetti, Dani Sánchez and Martin Horn has closed two days of preliminaries at the very highest level. The victims of the gruelling selection process were players of the highest caliber: Torbjörn Blomdahl (four-time world champion, number two in the world), Dick Jaspers (three world titles), Sung-Won Choi (the Korean fighter) and Jérémy Bury (one of the former Agipi stars).
The semi-finals this Sunday:
11.00:
Dani Sánchez-Zanetti
Martin Horn Frédéric Caudron.
Two sessions in the last qualifying round on Saturday night were decisive for the qualification and four spots in the semi-finals. Marco Zanetti, who returned with a jetlag from his business trip to Colombia last week, with a lack of practice hours, defeated Dick Jaspers, who did show up very well prepared (40-33 in 20).
Martin Horn, who started in his group with a loss against Dick Jaspers, then found his productive flow and outplayed Korean Sung-Won Choi after a run of fourteen in the early part of the match: 40-36 in 22.
And then, at the end of the day, two hard clashes had to decide about the two remaining spots. Dani Sánchez against Jérémy Bury, with the Spaniard as the main contender. And Frédéric Caudron against Torbjörn Blomdahl, with a heavy task for the world champion and just a little chance to survive for the Swede who didn't have the best of luck in the early stages.
It all turned out unexpectedly. Dani Sánchez could not dominate the match against Jérémy Bury from the start and looked at a 22-7 deficit halfway in eight innings. And a victory for the Frenchman, who could come to six match points, would mean that Caudron was out.
The plot took a twist, though, because after Torbjörn Blomdahl had opened the offensive against Caudron and led 24-12 in the fifth inning, the Belgian couldn't escape. But he witnessed from the stands how frantically Bury was struggling in the last part of his match against Dani Sánchez.
The Frenchman lost the game on two meager points. Therefore Caudron, with his four match points and a higher average, finished second in his group behind the unbeaten Sánchez.
The final rankings:
Group A:
1 Martin Horn 4-6-1.795-14
2 Marco Zanetti 4-6-1.319-8
3 Sung-Won Choi 4-4-1.480-9
4 Dick Jaspers 4-4-1.795-11
5 René Hendriksen 4-0-0.955-6.
Group B:
1 Dani Sánchez 4-8-2.191-21
2 Frédéric Caudron 4-4-2.287-8
3 Torbjörn Blomdahl 4-4-2.177-15
4 Jérémy Bury 4-4-2.028-10
5 Fernando Couto 4-0-0.758-6.