3-Cushion
BLANKENBERGE - Oh, oh, oh, Dave Christiani, what a dramatic day at the World Cup in Blankenberge. And oh, oh, oh, what went wrong today with all the Dutch billiard players, who were sent home after their first matches. They were with six players in the arena on Tuesday morning, all six of them could pack up at the end of the day and leave the house. Raymund Swertz and Dave Christiani had the best chances to survive, but again the World Cup turned into a big disappointment. No Dutch in the table of winners, out of the game for Dave Christiani, Raymund Swertz, Wilco Meusen, Ronald van Geyt, Volkan Cetin and Sylvia Eckel. Just like with the first two Dutch players on the first day.
What's going on with the Dutch in the World Cups? Dick Jaspers is lonely at the top for his country, don't forget that, but the main draws in the World Cups are usually played without other Dutch players, while it is one of the leading countries in the world of billiards. Tomorrow, Wednesday, four other Dutch will take the start: Glenn Hoffman, Jean Paul de Bruijn, Therese Klompenhouwer and Barry van Beers. And how strong will the Dutch colony hope for success, however the opponents are really tough again: Jose Juan Garcia, Christian Rudolph, one of the Vietnamese Nguyens, the strong Korean Sung Uk Oh, Duc Anh Chien Nguyen and Yusuke Mori. Come on, Orange..., look at the Belgians, who came up with 8 (!) winners on the second day.
Dave Christiani will remember this 12th of June in the Belgian seaside resort for a long time. Was it the fatigue, after he went to bed at 4.30 on Sunday night after the European Cup in Porto and had to get back in the car the next morning at 11 for the trip to Blankenberge? The all-rounder, strong in all game types, was in a group with the Belgian Steven van Acker and the Korean Su Hyun Cho for his first World Cup appearance on Tuesday. The Dutchman could watch the first round and saw the Belgian take the win against Cho 30-20 in 25. No problem at all so far. When he stepped to the table for his opening game against the Korean, things went wrong at the end. Christiani started excellently in a strong match from two sides. He fought back after 20-7 down with runs of 7, 7 and 6, levelled at 28-28, then Cho finished with two. The equalizer needed two points, but Christiani missed his last: 30-29 in 12 innings!!!
Still, nothing to worry when Christiani, who had to beat Van Acker, had a brilliant start: a run of 10, 18-4 in 6 innings, 23-5, even 29-9, but oh, oh, oh, what happened to the Dutchman at the end. Steven van Acker came back with 8 and 6 to 29-23 and ran into lots chances from Christiani to score even more. The Dutchman missed 9 times in a row. The score was 29-29 when Christiani finally finished with 1 in the 27th inning, but Van Acker had enough to equalize and finish as a group winner.
He was one of the Belgian players who took a leading role on the second day. Peter Ceulemans, luminary on the first day, was eliminated after a weak first match against Sung Uk Oh. That couldn't stop the other home players, among others, Kenny Miatton (1.428 average), Jef Philipoom (1.333 and the best day run of 14), Francis Forton, Ronny Daniels, Peter De Backer, Ronny Brants and Steven van Acker, all of them remained unbeaten. Danny Wuyts closed the course with one win and 1.137 average.
Filippos Kasidokostas had a great start with 30 in 10, but had a setback in his second and lost, after he missed the equalizer, 30-29 against Claus Maurer. Among the best players were Antonio Montes with a win in 9 innings against Davy van Havere, In-Won Kang with a win in 11 against Sylvia Eckel and Yusuke Mori in 13 innings.
Antonio Montes led the day ranking of sixteen group winners with 8 Belgians, 1 Spaniard, 1 Japanese, 2 Koreans, 1 Greek, 1 Colombian, 1 Austrian and 1 Frenchman.
The final ranking on Tuesday:
1 Antonio Montes 4-1.935-10
2 Yusuke Mori 4-1.666-7
3 Sung Uk Oh 4-1,500-8
4 Kenny Miatton 4-1.428-7
5 Jef Philipoom 4-1.333-14
6 Francis Forton 4-1.224-6
7 Ronny Daniels 4-1.200-8
8 Bernard Baudoin 4-1.176-7
9 Peter De Backer 4-1.153-9
10 Jose Juan Garcia 4-1.111-7
11 Georg Schmied 4-0.882-7
12 Ronny Brants 4-0.833-4
13 In-Won Kang 3-1.363-5
14 Steven van Acker 3-1.153-8
15 Filippos Kasidokostas 2-1.439-8
16 Danny Wuyts 2-1.137-5
The groups on Wednesday:
Group A met Jae-Guen Kim, Sung Kyu Oh en Danny Wuyts
B met Filippos Kasidokostas, Savas Gungor en Seung Jin Lee
C met Allen Schröder, Steven van Acker en Dionisis Toskontas
D met Sang Ku Kang, In-Won Kang en Dustin Jäschke
E met Ronny Brants, Jung Wan Lim en Regay Henry
F met Christian Rudolph, Jean Paul de Bruijn en Georg Schmied
G met Barry van Beers, Jose Juan Garcia en Quang Hao Truong
H met Peter De Backer, Atsushi Kiyota en Kwang Yeol Park
I met David Pennör, Bernard Baudoin en Kostas Kokkoris
J met Kostas Papakonstantinou, Ronny Daniels en Hideaki Kobayashi
K met Juan Zapata, Francis Forton en Jan Hudak
L met Tolgahan Kiraz, Jef Philipoom en Jérôme Barbeillon
M met Murat Celik, Kenny Miatton en Arnim Kahofer
N met Glenn Hofman, Trung Hau Do Nguyen en Sung Uk Oh
O met Duc Anh Chien Nguyen, Yusuke Mori en Therese Klompenhouwer
P met Thomas Andersen, Antonio Montes en Hyung Bum Hwang.
All matches live on Kozoom again.
Steven van Acker, great come-back to beat Dave Christiani
Jef Philipoom, one of the other 8 Belgians for the next round, shone with a run of 14
Japanese Yusuke Mori, 13 innings for his second win
Antonio Montes from Spain, best of the day, first match in 9 innings
The former junior world champion Jose Juan Garcia among the best sixteen