3-Cushion
ISTANBUL - The battle of the giants in the Istanbul World Cup will be between three Koreans and a Belgian. Former world champion Eddy Merckx will go into the arena tomorrow at 11.00 (Turkish time) to face Sung-Won Choi, who eliminated Frédéric Caudron from the spots in a shootout. The other semi will be between Kyung-Roul Kim and Jae Ho Cho.
Not often before was the Korean supremacy in a World Cup as obvious as in this mighty Bosporus city. But then, not often before did Eddy Merckx show form this sparkling, winning his last two matches - against Savas Bulut and Dong Koong Kang - in 14 and 11 innings.
Korean successes in World Cups are few and far between, certainly in the light of what now appears to become a dominance: only Sung-Won Choi and Dong Koong Kang have recorded an Asian tournament victory in the past two seasons. For 45- year old Eddy Merckx, his win in Hurghada was his last victory. The Belgian world record holder for best match (50 in 6) found his flow, won the Belgian title and will have an opportunity tomorrow to improve his position on the world ranking. Merckx is now sixth, and all five players above him have been eliminated.
He still has two Korean obstacles though. Jae Ho Cho has so far been one of the stars of this tournament. The Korean has played three matches in the main draw, and has averaged 2.264. Merckx has used one more inning, and is on 2.222.
Frédéric Caudron will not be there on the final day, because of one lesser match. His battle with Sung-Won Choi lasted 32 innings; Caudron then finished but saw Choi equalize with four.
The Korean warrior, renowned for his fighting spirit, had already survived a shootout, against Jung Han Heo. Frédéric Caudron went first, and produced an acceptable three. But Sung-Won Choi was cold as ice and made the four points he needed to beat the world champion.
Two of his countrymen watched it unfold from the stands, as they had already booked their ticket for the semi's. Jae Ho Cho dashed off with runs of seven and eight to take a commanding lead against Dani Sanchez (25-7), and the Spaniard could not threaten him despite two 7-runs of his own: 40-26 in 13.
Kyung-Roul Kim and Choong-Bok Lee had a long grind, Kim mostly on the up, but with a close finish anyway. The man who had eliminated Blomdahl earlier now missed out by a hair: Kim won it 40-38 in 23.
If there is one player capable of stopping that avalanche of Korean quality, it is Eddy Merckx. His last two matches were of rare beauty: 2.857 average against Savas Bulut and 3.636 against Dong Koong Kang, the only one of the Asians who could not produce when it most mattered. He watched Merckx's demonstration in awe, and was left behind at 40-7 in 11 innings.
The semi-final matches on Sunday:
Sung-Won Choi-Eddy Merckx
Kyung-Roul Kim-Jae Ho Cho.