Lausanne, November 25th 2018.
Beating Eddy Merckx in a final: that is one of the hardest things to do in 3-cushion. The Belgian champion, recently winner of the Seoul World Cup, also won the sixth edition of the Lausanne Billard Masters, beating Murat Naci Coklu in the final: 40-33 in 17 innings.
Merckx makes a habit of saving his best play for the latest stages of tournaments. He had no trouble surviving his group, with Blomdahl, Sánchez and Boulaz. In the quarters, he was completely dominant against Dong Koong Kang: 40-14 in 15. The semifinal was a hard fight against Sánchez, who made a strong comeback after a run of 13 by Merckx. The Belgian still finished first: 40-35 in 23. The final was a see-saw: both players were in the lead several times. Coklu pulled away, but Merckx ran a 12 to take over. There was an unlucky moment for the Turk, there was a lucky moment for the Belgian, and it was all over.
Sánchez, as mentioned, was stopped by Merckx. Tournament favorite Jaspers (after his brilliant win over Bury in 7 innings) was beaten twice by Coklu. The Turk started his semifinal against the Dutchman with 3-3-3-3-3, an unusual but strong list! Jaspers struggled to make runs and a few unforced errors crept in. Coklu, surprisingly, was never in danger: 40-23 in 17.
As usual, the tournament raised money for charity: “Sport pour SEP”, a chronic disease. La Baule winner Martin Horn donated part of his prize money, a fine gesture by the German.
Final standing of “Lausanne”:
- Eddy Merckx
- Murat Naci Coklu
3/ 4 Dani Sánchez and Dick Jaspers
5/ 8 Dong Koong Kang, Marco Zanetti, Torbjörn Blomdahl and Martin Horn.
Dong Koong Kang made the high run of the event: 17. The best match was played by Dick Jaspers: 40 in 7.
Lausanne, November 24th 2018
The Master of Lausanne will present two fantastic semifinals that can be followed at Kozoom.com tomorrow morning,
On Saturday, the groups finished, the top two finishers of each group along with the three best third formed the panel of the quarterfinals that were played in two rounds at 19 and 21 hours, the results of this round:
JASPERS - BLOMDAHL 40-29 IN 14 Inn.
ZANETTI - COCKLU 21-40 IN 20 Inn.
SANCHEZ - HORN 40-26 IN 15 Inn.
MERCKX - KANG 40-14 in 14 Inn.
These results leave the semifinals between JASPERS and COCKLU and SANCHEZ AND MERCKX at 10 o'clock and 12 o'clock, the final of this third edition of the Lausanne Billiard Masters, promoted by Diane Wild and organized by a large and efficient organizing committee of the Vadoise de Billard academy. It will take place at 14:30.
Undoubtedly everything has been organized with the Swiss precision and an excellent hospiitality of all the collaborators and volunteers of this great event that reaches again a great success in the Olympic Capital!
Lausanne, November 20th , 2018
From 23 to 25 November, the Casino de Montbenon will once again be host to the Lausanne Billard Masters. It is the sixth edition of this prestigious invitational tournament, and it has had a world class winner in all the previous years. To refresh your memory: Zanetti won in 2013 and 2014, Jaspers in 2015 and 2017, and Sánchez in 2016.
This year, play will be in three flights of four players, leading up to a knock-out final eight. The local (Swiss) player is Michel Boulaz, who finds himself in group A with Eddy Merckx, Torbjörn Blomdahl and Daniel Sánchez, who have a combined 12 world titles on their resume.
Group B consists of all-heavyweights: Dick Jaspers, Murat Naci Coklu, Jeremy Bury and Dong Koong Kang. You may remember the exciting recent final of the World Championship, between Jaspers and Bury. Coklu and Kang, on their day, are capable of beating anybody.
In Group C we find a very promising youngster: Gwendal Maréchal from France.
His invitation underlines that the promotion of billiards for junior players is always on the agenda for CEB president Diane Wild, who is also the principal organizer of the LBM. Maréchal will take on Lausanne regulars Marco Zanetti and Martin Horn, as well as one of the strongest Koreans: Jung Han Heo.
The tables in the beautiful arena of the Montbenon are Min, balls are Aramith and the cloth is Simonis.
The prize fund in Lausanne is 37.000 Swiss francs, with a first prize of
7.000 francs. Bonuses can be won for high runs of 12, 15 and 20, and for matches won in 20 innings or less and 15 innings or less. There is also a prize of 800 francs for the highest general average, if that is over 2.000.
Matches are to 40 points, there is no equalizing inning and the shot clock is 40 seconds.
The players will have a chance to warm up on Friday the 23d in the morning, and the action will start at 12.00. The final is scheduled for Sunday at 14.30. If you have a premium pass, you can watch it all on Kozoom.