The surprise name in the semifinal was Xuan Cuong Ma from Vietnam. He has been around for a few seasons, and also made it to the semifinal in Suwon 2011. With splendid victories over Marco Zanetti, Sung Won Choi and Dong Koong Kang, the 40-year old Vietnamese player can be proud of his performance.
One of the certain stars of the future is Myung Woo Cho, only 20 years of age and already in his third World Cup semifinal. He dealt with Birol Uymaz, Jung Han Heo and Quyet Chien Tran, but was stopped in the semi by Caudron. What a future this smiling youngster has.
Frédéric Caudron already won a World Cup this season (Bursa), but struggled a bit in the past months. He had a comfortable opening match against Eddy Leppens, then showed his brilliant style in a 12-inning win over Jean Paul de Bruijn. Can Capak was his third victim, and young Cho was beaten 40 - 34 in 21. Going into the final, the bookmakers had him as a slight favorite over the Swede.
Blomdahl had a tough draw, with a first round against Semih Sayginer (a win in 20), a second against New York winner Jae Ho Cho (19 innings) and a quarterfinal against the world nr. 1 and reigning world champion Dani Sánchez (13 innings). His semifinal against Ma was hard work (30 innings), but the final against Frédéric was vintage Blomdahl.
Both players were quick and productive, the audience could not have wished for more. Blomdahl was the better player though, and the score reflected it. A convincing 40 - 26 win in 17 innings gave the Swedish veteran his first World Cup victory since 2015 (Porto).
Organizer Joel Switala made everybody happy when he announced a third edition of this La Baule World Cup, to be played in the same location next year.
UMB president Farouk Barki promised "to do hard work, in the years that lead to the 2024 Olympics in Paris." Every billiard fan knows what that means.
Final standing of La Baule:
1) Torbjörn Blomdahl 2.020 - 12
2) Frédéric Caudron 1.947 - 15
3) Myung Woo Cho 1.855 - 8
3) Xuan Cuong Ma 1.707 - 8
5) Dong Koong Kang 1.938 - 15
6) Quyet Chien Tran 1.750 - 12
7) Can Capak 1.557 - 11
8) Dani Sánchez 1.405 - 7
Dani Sánchez remains in the nr. 1 position on the world ranking. Haeng Jik Kim has overtaken Dick Jaspers and is now in second place. Torbjörn Blomdahl climbs to 4th, Marco Zanetti is 5th.