Artistic
MARSEILLE - In the French port of Marseille, Xavier Fonellosa was the best of sixteen finalists in the Euro Grand Prix artistic. 54-year-old Spaniard triumphed on the final day in the match for gold against Serdar Gümüs 3-1 with a wonderful 80.586 score against 66.300. The scoreboard in the final: 45-34, 65-56, 60-61 and 50-30. The victory was well deserved. Fonellosa dealt in the run-up to the final with big names such as former world champions Jean Reverchon and Erik Daelman and last year's Grand Prix winner Baris Cin.
The Spaniard is one of the known players in the circuit for many years: he achieved his biggest successes already in 1993 and 1995 with world titles in Grubbenvorst and Saragossa in battles with Jean Reverchon, Raymond Steylaerts and Thomas Ahrens. His best year was 1995, when not only won the World championship, also the European championship in Berkel Enschot ahead of Raymond Steylaerts and Thomas Ahrens.
Fonellosa then descended on the world ranking to a current eleventh place, just one place better than the Spanish champion Juan-Carlos Cuadrado. That position on the ranking meant that Fonellosa had to play the preliminaries in Marseille, in which he finished second behind Frenchman Olivier Panis with 199 points (66.333 percent).
The Spanish triumph in the knockout stage started against Erik Daelman in the eighth finals (3-2, 65.861), followed by Baris Cin in the quarterfinals (3-2, 73.333) and a strong win in the semi-final against Jean Reverchon 3-1 and 79.916.
Serdar Gümüs, the number two in the world ranking, was qualified directly for the main draw and defeated Bastien Panis in the eighth finals (3-1, 54.074), Madou Toure in the quarterfinals (2-0, 72.727) and Walter Bax in the semis (3-2, 76.231).
The highest percentage in the tournament was played by Jean Reverchon in the eighth finals, in he outplayed Dutch former World champion Sander Jonen 3-0 and 81.675, slightly higher than Fonellosa in the final (80.586). Walter Bax was unlucky in the semi-finals when Gümüs beat him with the same score: 76.231.
The final result in the Grand Prix:
1 Xavier Fonellosa
2 Serdar Gümüs
3 Jean Reverchon
4 Walter Bax
5 Baris Cin
6 Hector Cuadrado
7 Juan-Carlos Cuadrado
8 Madou Toure
9 Michael Hammen
10 Kevin Tran
11 Eric Daelman
12 Sander Jonen
13 Jop de Jong
14 Erik Vervliet
15 Bastien Panis
16 Manfred Hekerle.