3-Cushion
The traditional Egyptian music echoed through the arena when Filippos Kasidokostas, Frédéric Caudron, Jérémy Bury and Kouji Funaki one by one were led to the podium. The trophy for the victory in the World Cup of Hurghada was ready for being hand out to Filippos Kasidkostas. The 27-year-old Greek defeated in the final his Belgian opponent Frederic Caudron (3-1) in an easy strike and took his first World Cup victory in his carreer.
The Greek allowed himself some emotions when the Greek anthem was played and the audience rewarded him with a standing ovation. Frédéric Caudron (second), Kouji Founaki and Jeremy Bury (third) completed the podium.
Dick Jaspers also shared in the succes. The Dutchman was declared as the winner of the World Cup 2010 after tournaments in Antalya (winner Kyung-Roul Kim), Suwon (winner Dick Jaspers) and Matosinhos (winner Frédéric Caudron).
The World Cup circuit was exciting until the last caroms. Jaspers eventually won by 198 points, before Caudron (186) and Kasidokostas (180). Jaspers also remains the leader of the world ranking, where the top five remains intact and Kasidokostas rises from ten to eight.
The last World Cup this year again showed how close the players in the top fifteen of the world are together. The early eliminations of Eddy Merckx, Martin Horn, Eddy Leppens, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Daniel Sánchez and the stumble of Dick Jaspers at an important moment for him showed that anything is possible in the big tournaments.
The Spaniard Javier Palazón continued in Hurghada his road to the top. The Asians also played another important role, especially with Kouzi Funaki, who beat Jaspers and only had to bow for the later winner. Jaspers however played in Hurghada the highest average of all players: 2115.
Frédéric Caudron didn't approach in the finale the level on which he played during this tournament. The average of Kasidokostas (2.363) was much higher than his opponent (1.476), moreover the Belgian was dropped out in the final set with 15-1 in only four innings.
The Greek towered above his opponent with superb, good balanced positional play. It seemed like Caudron was already after two sets thrown to the lions. He needed a little miracle, still won the fourth set (15-7) in four innings, but then could only look from his chair to the big hitter of the final.
Jean Claude Dupont, president of the UMB, invited the players and officials after the final for the next edition of the World Cup, that until now officially will consist of three tournaments: Trabzon in Turkey from February 14 to 20, Las Vegas from April 4 to 10 and Vienna from September 26 to October 3. Tournaments in Porto and Hurghada will be almost certainly added.
The top ten of the tournament in Hurghada were:
Filippos Kasidokostas 1 (1.860), 2 Frédéric Caudron (1.802) 3 Jeremy Bury (1.853), 4 Kouji Funaki (1.686), 5 Dick Jaspers (2.115), 6 Kyung-Roul Kim (1.774), Eddy Leppens 7 (1.625) , 9 Daniel Sánchez (1.470), 10 Sung-Won Choi (1.269).