3-Cushion
PORTO - Two giants of the three cushion games met for the first time in years, in a match that was not just important for the history books, but also for the standing of the sport. Torbjörn Blomdahl and Semih Sayginer met on Saturday morning in a match that had the eyes of the world on it. The Swede won it in the closing innings: 40-34 in 25 innings.
He laid the foundation for the win with two runs: a ten just before the interval, and an eight shortly before the end. ,,I had a few impossible positions after that, which made the situation dangerous'', said Blomdahl.
All signs were in the Swede's advantage, as he had won the last ten encounters with the Turk. On only one of those occasions did he not average over 2.000.
Six times did they meet in the Crystal Kelly tournament (50-31 in 21, 50-44 in 25, 50-36 in 23, 50-24 in 22, 50-32 in 17 en 50-36 in 23), three times in the Agipi Masters (50-19 in 22, 50-24 in 20 en 50-30 in 26) and one time in the World Cup in Istanbul (3-1 in sets).
Blomdahl, who says he is not much of a statistician, could not remember most of those matches. But he did express his admiration for Sayginer's return to center stage. ,,I am glad that he is back as our competitor, because he is an asset to the game.'' And of course Semih's loss was very explainable this time: he entered the arena without any match rhythm, was facing one of the top three players in the world and tried to enjoy his welcome party. But Semih was not ready for a sensation, it will take some time. He felt uncomfortable with the time clock, with the distance. It is all a result of his long absence at the front.
The Turkish crowd pleaser said after his loss: ,,This has been a good experience for me.'' He had chances in the match, certainly near the end, but he could not capitalize. At 15-9 in the tenth inning, Sayginer saw his opponent hit him with a run of thirteen. And from 30-30, Blomdahl again ran away, this time with an eight.
The encounter between the Swede and the Turk was of course in the spotlights, but Dani Sánchez played by far the best match of the round. The Spaniard, who was in Korea for forty days this summer and practiced ten hours a day on average, showed that his preparation had not been in vain. He is now certain to get back into the top-12, after his victory over Quoc Nguyen Nguyen, one of the Vietnamese talents left without a chance by the Spanish maestro.
Dani played to a superior standard, took a 20-10 lead in five innings and finally won it 40-21 in 14. Peter Ceulemans and Kyung-Roul Kim played a marathon match that ended in a Belgian win, after closing innings that left the spectators on the edge of their seats: 40-38 in 36. It has been quite a few years since a Ceulemans was amongst the best 8 in the world.
Murat Naci Coklu, who has made a strong impression ever since he entered the tournament, won the Turkish derby against Murat Tüzül 40-32 in 22. Roland Forthomme looked at a horrible backlog at the interval (20-7) but turned it into a great victory: 40-35 in 20.
Sung-Won Choi is Blomdahl's next opponent, after the Korean beat his countryman Dong Koong Kang 40-23 in 25, Dick Jaspers stays on course after his win over Ryuuji Umeda (40-28 in 27) and the strongest of the Vietnamese, Quiet Chien Tran, who has felt ill all week, beat Eddy Leppens 40-28 in 27.
The quarter final matches: Forthomme-Coklu Ceulemans-Sánchez Tran-Jaspers Choi-Blomdahl.