3-Cushion
WONJU - The sixteen players for the next session at the Grand Prix in Wonju, Korea, are known. Dick Jaspers and Korean JunTae Kim finished with 18 match points in their groups and are the best winners. Eddy Merckx, Nikos Polychronopoulos, Murat Naci Coklu, Tayfun Tasdemir and Semih Sayginer are also among the top two players in their groups. Most surprising was the elimination of Dani Sánchez for the next draw. The Spaniard lost his last match on one point to Tayfun Tasdemir.
Dick Jaspers looks back on a very successful start after his last match. He lost one game in the Round Robin format in a thrilling finish, with Choong Bok Lee, in which he came one second short to win the match.
''I am satisfied, but it's all very hard and stressful", was his comment after the group win ahead of Sayginer, Wan Young Choi and Nguyen. ''It is a very hard format, because actually it's not only important to make a lot of points in a short time, but you feel a double stress, because you also play ruthlessly against time, especially when there is a third, decisive set of only fifteen minutes. Then, win and lose are very close.''
Making high scores, runs, playing tactfully, defending rock-hard when necessary: these are the characteristics of this Grand Prix, in which in this phase the matches are to two winning sets (on time). In the four groups one more match will be played before the final ranking in the groups will be made later today (Friday). Then, the best four from each group are placed in two groups of eight again, which will again all play each other. The sequel is: the best four of those two groups move to a grup of eight, again all against each other and finally the play-offs with the best four brings the winner of the event.
For Jaspers and the other top guns in this tournament, it will be a long and tough journey if he wants to stay in the race for the top prizes. Jaspers: ''It seems like an endless trajectory of matches, where it is hard to keep concentration all those days. On the one hand, it is a tournament with constant stress, but on the other it is a long trajectory that allows you to recover from a bad match or a loss. I am in good shape, but from tomorrow, Saturday, in the next phase, I start from zero again.''
''I can't speak for others, but for some players it is difficult to find the rhythm again after those two weeks of quarantine'', the world number 1 realises. ''I am thinking of Therese (Klompenhouwer) and Roland (Forthomme), for example, who have not reached their normal level. It is hard, especially when you are eliminated after a few rounds, to keep your concentration. And it is so close together. Dani Sánchez has been eliminated with a 1,993 average, to mention one top player. He loses the placement on 1 point, that is very sour. Semih Sayginer was sweating on his chair in the final stages of his match against Korean girl Ji Eun Han, because he could have lost in the last seconds. And that could have cost him the tournament.''
Dick Jaspers speaks about ''a dangerous, new dimension'' that has been added to a tournament in this format. ''For example, you are 11-10 down in the last minute of a deciding set. Then your opponent can slow down, or decide to put a ball in such a position that it cannot be made. Then you are at the mercy of the system and your opponent. It's very bizarre, sometimes, but also wonderful. It's a matter of fighting very hard and surviving''.
The first seeded players for the next round with sixteen players are:
Group A:
Dick Jaspers
Semih Sayginer
Wan Young Choi
Nguyen Quoc Nguyen
Group B:
Murat Naci Coklu
Nikos Polychronopoulos
Torbjörn Blomdahl
Bong Joo Hwang
Group C:
JunTae Kim
Eddy Merckx
Quyet Chien Tran
Jung Han Heo
Group D:
Tayfun Tasdemir
Myeong Jong Cha
Lütfi Cenet
Chang Hoon Seo.
Belgian top gun Eddy Merckx is among the best 16 in the Korean Grand Prix
Sameh Sidhom, outplayed by Dick Jaspers in his last match
Dani Sänchez lost on 1 point to Tayfun Tasdemir and is out of the game