3-Cushion
ANTALYA - The elimination of Frédéric Caudron is the only major surprise in sixteen matches for the first rounds at the World Cup. The top of the world, in which all the other players performed on a high level, has already lost his leader after one day in the main tournament . The Belgian heavyweight was the worst of them all and must wait and see now what that will mean for his position.
Torbjörn Blomdahl rose to the same height as Marco Zanetti tonight in the last day session. The Swede could not make high runs, but kept on scoring and amazed with wonderful caroms in his duel with the gloomy-looking Venezuelan Merlin Romero: 40-13 in 12 innings.
Kyung-Roul Kim also showed the ambitions with which he has travelled to Turkey and overpowered his country man Dong Kang Koong: 40-16 15.
Roland Forthomme and Filippos Kasidokostas could not perform on that level, but gthey were ood enough for the win in their first matches. The Belgian started off with a 40-32 against Murat Tüzul (26 innings), the Greek had a five carom-bonus at the finish to leave Luis Aveiga behind (40-35 in 29).
Two players over 3 average, seven over 2: that is the result of sixteen matches. The conclusion, looking at the schedule, may be that for some other big guns the title dreams will end tomorrow (Saturday) in the eighth finals.
Two stars of day one, Marco Zanetti and Dick Jaspers, meet each other in the next session, there is a fight between the two Spaniards Dani Sánchez and Javier Palazón and other eye-catchers are the duels Kyung-Roul Kim-Filippos Kasidokostas and Torbjörn Blomdahl-Roland Forthomme.
Frédéric Caudron's top position in the ranking is faltering now, because Blomdahl with his victory has already exceeded the difference of eleven points with one point. The Swede however needs to pick up another twelve points: he will lose 38 points from the Trabzon World Cup in 2011, Caudron only 26.
Blomdahl has to beat Forthomme tomorrow, then he is almost sure of number one position.
Sung-Won Choi's handicap, as it seemed earlier today, is gone, his form is back. The Korean played his matches in the Agipi Masters with severe pain in the upper arm a few weeks ago after a surgery four weeks before. In the World Cup in Antalya, he is back on top.
The Korean met Tayfun Tasdemir for his first performance today, the player who was his opponent in the Antalya World Cup final last year. Choi won the five-set match 3-2. Today, in the first round of the main event, Choi was again the strongest. He triumphed 40-35 in 18.
The match was overshadowed half an hour later by the outcome of the thrilling duel between Savas Bulut and Sameh Sidhom. The Egyptian, who showed his great form so far, had a better start, he was trailing after the halfway point, but finished together with Bulut: 40-40.
The Turkish crowd just before had lost Tasdemir on one of the other tables. Murat Naci Coklu won his match against Hwang Hyung Bum (40-28 in 25), but the bonus was delicious. Bulut scored two times from the break-off, Sidhom responded with one from the spots, but missed his second for the tie.
Two Turks, one Korean and one Belgian were the winners of the third session of the day. Eddy Merckx did not find any obstacle on his path beating Japanese O Takeshima, the revelation in the World championship in Porto last year.
Merckx started flawlessly and could already go for the break after 4 innings. He led 24-2 after a 10 run, then ran out to 35-10 in 17 and closed the match at 40-16 in 23.
Murat Naci Coklu had a relatively easy match against Hwang Hyung Bum, but meets the world champion, Eddy Merckx, in his next encounter.
The matches for tomorrow's 1/8 final (Saturday):
11.00:
Alp-Yüksel
Zanetti-Jaspers
Horn-Bury
Palazón-Sánchez
13.30:
Merckx-Coklu
Choi Bulut
Kim-Kasidokostas
Blomdahl-Forthomme.