ANDERNOS - The final attack by Jose Maria Mas and Jérôme Barbeillon lacked the power to threaten Dion Nelin as the overall winner. The final victory went to the player who dominated from the first day of this Kozoom session and secured his lead in the next two days. The 44-year-old Danish player, who gave up his profession as a school bus driver for a two-year professional contract, prevailed with 11 sets won, followed by Spaniard Jose Maria Mas with 7 and Frenchman Jérôme Barbeillon with 6 sets.
Dion Nelin joins the finalists Dick Jaspers, Eddy Merckx, Ruben Legazpi and Peter De Backer. Three players will battle it out in the next three sessions for the last places in the final round from 16 to 19 September. Torbjörn Blomdahl, the regular commentator in these qualification rounds, will be in action himself in the next session with Gwendal Maréchal and Ronny Lindemann as his opponents. The Swede will be alternated at the microphone by Marco Zanetti and Jose Maria Mas.
Dion Nelin's power grab, who demurred on the first day (6-1-1 lead) faltered on the second day, when Jérôme Barbeillon counter-attacked and brought the tension back. The Frenchman was unable to maintain his form on the decisive day of play. The final round started with two sets won by Mas and one by Barbeillon, but Nelin could did not let his opponents get any further. The frontrunner won the fourth, sixth and seventh set, which gave him a five-set lead (11-6-6). The Spaniard Mas eventually grabbed second place thanks to a win in the last set.
The sets with the most excitement on the third day were the first, second and fourth rounds. The second was a demonstration by Mas (10-1-0), the penultimate a one-man-show by Nelin with 10-1-0 on the scoreboard.
The Dane missed a set point in the opening set, allowing Mas to come back to 9-9 and make the winning point with a lucky shot. The Spaniard had another rebound in the second set with a run of eight. Jérôme Barbeillon started the fourth set with a nice eight, missed a round the table shot and Nelin was able to finish with four. That brought his lead to 9-6-5. Two sets later, Nelin went out with five and made use of his first match ball.
The set scores on the third day:
Set 17:
Mas 10, Nelin 9, Barbeillon 0
Set 18:
Mas 10, Nelin 1, Barbeillon 0
Set 19:
Barbeillon 10, Nelin 2, Mas 2
Set 20:
Nelin 10, Barbeillon 8, Mas 2
Set 21:
Mas 10, Nelin 5, Barbeillon 2
Set 22:
Nelin 10, Barbeillon 6, Mas 1
Set 23:
Nelin 10, Barbeillon 1, Mas 0
Set 24:
Mas 10, Nelin 5, Barbeillon 5.
The final ranking:
1 Dion Nelin 11-168-115-1,461-10
2 Jose Maria Mas 7-135-114-1,184-8
3 Jérôme Barbeillon 6-142-112-1,268-10.
The next session with Torbjörn Blomdahl, Gwendal Maréchal and Ronny Lindemann is on 19, 20 and 21th of May.
Dion Nelin was not threatened in the last part of the session and finished the winner
Jose Maria Mas and Jérôme Barbeillon, a last attack
