Lausanne , July 14th
SEOUL. Two Belgians were relieved and happy at the end of this long day, and their names were not Hazard and de Bruyne. The two Eddy’s of billiards, Leppens and Merckx, had booked a place in the semifinals of the prestigious 3CC World Masters tournament, and they had worked hard for it.
To even get to the quarterfinals, Eddy Leppens had to play his 16th final against his worst nemesis, the 4-time world champion Dani Sánchez. To the end of his years, Leppens will remember the way Dani blocked his way to a world title, once in Rezé (1998), once in Lugo (2005), once in Sluiskil (2010) and once in Bordeaux (2016). This time though, the Spaniard lacked form and Leppens stood tall: 34-32. His win over Nguyen in the quarters confirmed that he has his eye on the highest prize this week.
Quyet Chien Tran is still reeling from his first ever World Cup win, earlier this year In Ho Chi Minh City. He continues to do well, this time by narrowly beating Spanish talent David Martinez: 26-25.
Merckx thought he had beaten the most experienced man in the field, Marco Zanetti, when he was leading 35-21. But the Italian mounted a great comeback to make it 37-37. What better time was there ever, to make a run of 12? Merckx did just that, and it put him in tomorrow’s semifinals after a 53-41 win.
Tasdemir, on paper, had the easiest quarterfinal. But he realized full well that the young Yusuke Mori was the player who had eliminated Frédéric Caudron. The Turk proved that he is on the way back after two lesser seasons, and his averages are amongst the best in the world again. He got past Mori 39-22 and he is in the final four.
Semifinals: Leppens – Tasdemir
Tran - Merckx
Lausanne, july 13th.
Players are picking up the pace
The second day of the 3CC World Masters was a significant step up from the first. All the actors involved played their parts just a little bit quicker, and there was plenty of action all around. The one thing this format will never give us, is predictable results! Even before the start of the knock-out stage, two of the very best players in the world, Frédéric Caudron and Dick Jaspers, were eliminated.
All eight groups were decided on this Friday, either by one or by two matches left to play. The group that caught the eye was group A, where Yusuke Mori made a dream debut. He played the match of his life against Caudron, beating him 49-38, helped by a couple of high-quality runs of seven. Caudron later lost to Minh Cam Ma as well, so he is out of the event.
A similar fate was there for Dick Jaspers, who needed a big win over Tayfun Tasdemir to survive. Instead, the Turk beat him 40-37 which meant that Tasdemir finished on a glorious general average of 2.650 and Jaspers was eliminated.
Dani Sanchez and Murat Naci Coklu made a strong impression, finishing as undefeated group leaders. Zanetti had a mediocre match and a fantastic one: he made 70 points against Leppens, the best performance so far. Merckx got safely through as well as Blomdahl, even though the Swede struggled at times. Sidhom was the surprising winner of group H, staying ahead of two Vietnamese.
The results after the preliminaries:
Group A:
1 Minh Cam Ma 4-1.475-8
2 Yusuke Mori 2-1.750-7
3 Frédéric Caudron 0-1.575-6
Group B:
1 Eddy Merckx 4-1.875-9
2 Jérémy Bury 2-1.700-8
3 Wan Young Choi 0-1.250-5
Group C:
1 Marco Zanetti 4-2.450-11
2 Eddy Leppens 1-1.625-7
3 Chi Yeon Cho 1-1.125-4
Group D:
1 Dani Sánchez 4-2.250-9
2 Nikos Polychronopoulos 2-1.375-8
3 Roland Forthomme 0-1.425-7
Group E:
1 Torbjörn Blomdahl 4-1.875-13
2 Nguyen Quoc Nguyen 2-1.575-10
3 Semih Sayginer 0-1.275-8
Group F:
1 Murat Naci Coklu 4-2.250-16
2 David Martinez 2-1.550-6
3 Sung-Won Choi 0-1.325-5
Group G:
1 Tayfun Tasdemir 4-2.650-15
2 Jung-Han Heo 2-2.450-9
3 Dick Jaspers 0-1.725-9
Group H:
1 Sameh Sidhom 4-1.875-7
2 Quyet Chien Tran 2-1.625-7
3 Dinh Nai Ngo 0-1.300-5.
Lausanne, July 12th.
3CC World Masters: ironing out the wrinkles
Nobody knew exactly what to expect, on the first day of the 3CC World Masters in Seoul. The format made its debut and none of the players had previous experience with it. Frankly, neither did the organization: a combined effort by Kozoom and the UMB. At the end of the first day, everybody involved had learned a lot and it was clear where improvements were needed.
Twenty-four of the best players in the world compete in a match where positions are generated by a computer, and they both try to score as many points from that position as they can. It did not all go quite as swift as it should have: the referees needed to get used to their task and the technical equipment involved in the format caused small delays as well.
Nevertheless, the players gave it their best and tried to find their rhythm. They were unanimous in their praise for the new initiative and the great location.
Tayfun Tasdemir was the player who excelled on day one: he produced 66 points in his 20 chances. His opponent Jung Han Heo came as far as 55, from exactly the same positions. Quite a few other matches had far lower averages: Leppens drew with Chi Yeo Cho: 29-29. Blomdahl beat Sayginer 30-24. As Sayginer also lost to Nguyen (40-27), the Turk is out after the group stage.
Tomorrow, world champion Frédéric Caudron will make his first appearance, as well as Marco Zanetti and Dani Sánchez.