3-Cushion
WONJU - The Turkish bastion at the World 3Cushion Grand Prix in Korea goes into the final day of the second part with four major players in the top positions. Murat Naci Coklu and Lütfi Cenet are in the runner-up positions following Dick Jaspers and Torbjörn Blomdahl. Semih Sayginer and Tayfun Tasdemir are in the top four of Group A and still have to counter the final attack on their positions. Only the known homeland Koreans are in the top zone of the rankings with so many players.
The four coveted places, which in both Group A and Group B give the right to the qualification for the final group of eight players, are at stake for the last skirmishes. Dick Jaspers, Torbjörn Blomdahl and Murat Naci Coklu are the three players who have already secured the qualification. The final battles in the two groups predict an exciting final day in the Grand Prix arena in Wonju. The deciding games for tomorrow, Tuesday:
Group A: Jaspers-Tasdemir, Nguyen-Merckx, Sayginer-Cenet, Tran-Choi.
Group B: Coklu-Kim, Heo-Polychronopoulos, Hwang-Seo, Blomdahl-Cha.
Of the European players in the field, Eddy Merckx (5 match points out of 6 matches) and Nikos Polychronopoulos (3 points out of 6) have already been definitively eliminated for placement. The Belgian lost his last chance in the match against Dick Jaspers, which he should have won. The match ended in a draw: Jaspers won the first set 23-12 in 6, the second was 13-13 in 7, the third set went to Merckx 11-6 in 7 (averages, Jaspers 2,210, Merckx 1,714). Nikos Polychronopoulos remained on one victory in six games by losing 2-1 against Jun Tae Kim.
Jaspers and Blomdahl both lead their group with 16 match points out of 5 matches: 5 wins and 1 draw each. Lütfi Cenet climbed to second place, following Jaspers after his 2-0 win over Nguyen, with the same match points as Sayginer, but a better set score. Tayfun Tasdemir moved into the top four with one round to go by victories over Sayginer and Choi. The Turkish clash showed Tasdemir in blistering form: he won the first set against Sayginer 28-6 in 6, the second 16-9 in 8, good for an average of 3,142 and a high run of 13.
Two players can still threaten the top four: Nguyen Quoc Nguyen, who like Tasdemir has 9 points and plays against Merckx tomorrow. Also Quyet Chien Tran, with 7 match points, still has a minimal chance: the Vietnamese plays against Won Young Choi. Tasdemir has a tough last mission: he has to play Jaspers.
The four leaders in Group B are Torbjörn Blomdahl (16 out of 6), Murat Naci Coklu (15 out of 6), Jun Tae Kim (12 out of 6) and Bong Joo Hwang (10 out of 6) and are followed by Jung Han Heo, who has 9 out of 6 and can still join the top four. Cha, Poly and Seo are eliminated. Coklu follows Blomdahl's lead thanks to his two victories today against Koreans Seo (2-0) and Cha (2-0), the latter with an average of 2,866. In average terms, Coklu is second only to Jaspers with 2.267 in the entire field of sixteen players.
The rankings going into the final day:
Group A:
1 Dick Jaspers 6-16-2,858-19
2 Lütfi Cenet 6-10-2,029-23
3 Semih Sayginer 6-10-2,153-15
4 Tayfun Tasdemir 6-9-1,769-13
5 Nguyen Quoc Nguyen 6-9-1,656-12
6 Quyet Chien Tran 6-7-1,804-13
7 Eddy Merckx 6-5-1,575-7
8 Won Young Choi 6-3-1,467-11
Group B:
1 Torbjörn Blomdahl 6-16-2,100-17
2 Murat Naci Coklu 6-15-2,267-14
3 Jun Tae Kim 6-12-1,748-16
4 Hong Joo Hwang 6-10-1,692-11
5 Jung Han Heo 6-9-2,086-11
6 Nikos Polychronopoulos 6-3-1,503-8
7 Myung Jong Cha 6-3-1,733-12
8 Chang Hoon Seo 6-3-1,377-9.
Lütfi Cenet is in a marvelous final sprint in his group
Semih Sayginer, in second place following the unbeaten Dick Jaspers
Tayfun Tasdemir, after his victory over Sayginer in a good position: but still a tough last mission to go facing Jaspers
The two groups playing for positions 17-32 are led by Dani Sánchez and Dion Nelin. In the Spaniard's group, Choong Bok Lee is the number two with the same match points as Sánchez (15), followed by HaengJik Kim with 11, Chi Yeon Cho with 9 and Dong Hoon Kim with 9. Nelin leads with 15 points ahead of Ja-in Kang, Sung-won Choi and Sameh Sidhom, all three with 12.
Therese Klompenhouwer played a draw today against Korean young lady Ji-Eun Han (1-1, sets 14-7 for the Dutch, 17-6 for the Korean and 10-10 in the last set, average Han 1,030, Klompenhouwer 0,937). The Dutch ladies world champion lost the match against Choong Bok Lee 2-0 (2,647/1,235). Klompenhouwer was not completely satisfied about her performance in Korea. ''I hope to come back better than what I have shown now, but I am very grateful for the invitations.''
Roland Forthomme still has a chance to survive with the best four of his group. For the Belgian, the match against Ji Hun Ahn is a 'must win', so he still has a chance to catch up with Kang, Choi and Sidhom in match points and go into the next stage with a better average.