3-Cushion
GURI - The winner of the last World Cup in Porto escaped with a little miracle and is still in the race for another World Cup stunt. Dick Jaspers put up a hard fight in his battle with Lütfi Cenet to come back from a hopeless position (34-17 in 14 innings), found his rhythm with a run of fifteen (the highest so far), and eventually made 40-40 in the equalizer. The Dutch player showed himself the most coldblooded in the penaltyshots.
The Turk started from the break with two and missed his third by a kiss. Jaspers scored the first, had two difficult positions, but scored flawlessly 3-1. The Dutchman, who seems to be in a winning euphoria again after two minor years, will meet Eddy Merckx in the next round.
Two Belgians, two Koreans, one Swede, one Dutchman, one Frenchman and one Vietnamese are in the quarterfinals. Frédéric Caudron won one of the two best matches in this round: 40-23 against Korean number one Jung Han Heo in sixteen innings. Eddy Merckx came in eighteen to the finish line against another Turk, Ahmet Alp: 40-30.
Two Korean players kept up straight in an exceptionally strong round again. Dong Koong Kang defeated Filipos Kasidokostas 40-35 in 22, Jae Ho Cho restrained Roland Forthomme with 40-33 in 16.
Torbjörn Blomdahl tormented on of the best player so far: Murat Naci Coklu. The third Turkish player who is out now, was out of a chance: 40-18 in 17. Remarkable fact: Coklu couldn't score more than two in his 17 innings.
The Vietnamese Nguyen Quoc Nguyen showed again that the World Cup in Porto was not a coincidence. He shared the best eight after a solid win over Kyung Roul Kim: 40-37 in 22.
Jérémy Bury bested another Korean top player: the Frenchman outplayed the fighting man Sung-Won Choi 40-34 in 27 In the quarterfinals he meets his former Agipi leader Frédéric Caudron.
The quarter-finals:
16:00:
Frédéric Caudron-Jérémy Bury
Nguyen Quoc Nguyen Dong-Koong Kang
18.00:
Dick Jaspers-Eddy Merckx
Torbjörn Blomdahl-Jae Ho Cho.