3-Cushion
MEDELLIN - Two Belgians, one Korean and one Greek who set the tone for the final days of the World Cup in Medellin. Three of eleven Colombian fighters may return on the second day of the main event. Two players of top twelve (Korean Dong Koong Kang and Turk Tayfun Tasdemir) who couldn’t survive the opening day.
And a match with a final stage which is rarely seen in top billiards.
Colombian Alexander Salazar (bronze medal at the World championship in Antwerp) and Jean Paul de Bruijn (Dutch champion), who played a rock solid match together (over one average) and then totally tensed up at the end, in a mental fight: the match, watched by the Colombian diehards in the stands, turned into a slapstick.
The World Cup in Medellin, Colombia, last night at 20.00 Colombian time, tonight at 2 am in Europe.
The scores at the end of the match (Salazar leading 39-35):
Jean Paul de Bruijn:
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-1-0-0-0-0-0
Alexander Salazar:
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-1 .
The Colombian missed thirteen match balls and finally scored the winning point: 40-36 in 44 innings.
The Belgians Eddy Merckx and Eddy Leppens, Korean Jae Ho Cho and Greek Filippos Kasidokostas were the star players of the first day in the main tournament. Merckx, Leppens and Cho won in 20 innings, Kasidokostas beat Korean World Cup winner Dong Koong Kang in 21.
Twice before they meet each other at the table: Kang and Kasidokostas. The score was in balance: the Greek won in the Agipi Masters last year, the Korean, also in 2012, the World Cup match in Antalya in sets.
Both players have an impressive month behind. Kang won the World Cup in his own country and shone at the World championship in Antwerp with a 40 points game in 7 innings (5.714 average) against Cenet. Kasidokostas won silver at the World’s in Antwerp.
The battle between the two was announced with high expectations. The opposite was true: Filippos dominated from the start with a chilling calm in his game and many highlights on the table. He attacked between the 12th and 17th inning to 36-21 and eventually won 40-36 in 21, after Kang had scored eight in the equalizer.
Torbjörn Blomdahl had started the day with a decent win over Alejandro Piza (40-30 in 33), Jae Ho Cho wiped the floor with Tayfun Tasdemir in a one-man-show (40-17 in 20) and Sung-Won Choi escaped from elimination against Henry Diaz: the Korean giant first survived a match ball and then finished himself on 39-36 with a five run.
Eddy Merckx and Eddy Leppens, who meet each other today, had a great start: both took the win in twenty innings. Merckx defeated Pierre Soumagne at full blast (40-14), Leppens looked very sharp and lively with a majestic win over Luis Martinez (40-20).
Dick Jaspers faced a gap of twelve points (29-17) against Roland Forthomme. The Belgian, as always showing his mood-swings, took the lead with three runs of seven, Jaspers launched the sprint with eight, when Forthomme lost his rhythm and finally finished with nine (40-33 in 24).
Murat Naci Coklu was knocked out by one of the Colombians: Carloman Ortiz, who won 40-33 in 35 innings. Marco Zanetti defeated another home player, Cesar Garzon, 40-33 in 31.
Frédéric Caudron racked up his first win in a match against on of his team mates in the Netherlands. The world champion defeated Glenn Hoffman with a final run of five in 26 innings: 40-30.
The matches for today, Friday (Colombian time):
12.00:
Torbjörn Blomdahl – Hyung Bum Hwang
Jae Ho Cho - Sung-Won Choi
Carloman Ortiz - Kyung-Roul Kim
Filippos Kasidokostas - Marco Zanetti
14.00:
Jérémy Bury - Lütfi Cenet
Eddy Merckx - Eddy Leppens
Dick Jaspers - Alexander Salazar
Frédéric Caudron - Andres Lizarazo
The quarterfinals are at 18.00.