ANDERNOS - How far is Roland Forthomme in his recovery after the operation he underwent? Can he qualify as third Belgian for the final of the Kozoom Challenge Cup following Eddy Merckx and Peter De Backer? It is undoubtedly the ambition of the player who is one of the home favorites of the Kozoom audience.
The last three players of the qualifications are in theory the most evenly matched. The Greek Nikos Polychronopoulos, Roland Forthomme and the Swede Mikael Nilsson are internationally experienced players and qualitatively able to lift this preliminary round to a high level.
The eighth and final group of the Kozoom Challenge Cup is played in Andernos this week from Wednesday 2 to Friday 4 June. After the qualifications of Eddy Merckx (Belgium), Dick Jaspers (Netherlands), Rubén Legazpi (Spain), Gwendal Maréchal (France), Dion Nelin (Denmark), Marco Zanetti (Italy) and Peter De Backer (Belgium), the last three players will take on the showdown to qualify for the Kozoom final in September.
It is almost impossible to predict a winner in this very homogeneous group where anything can happen. For three days, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the players of this final group phase will face each other from 17.00 for 24 sets of 10 caroms. All matches can be followed live on Kozoom for Premium subscribers.
The averages of the three participants:
Nikos Polychronopoulos, 43, world no. 24:
Average 2019: 1,772, average 2018: 1,817, average 2017: 1,579
Roland Forthomme, 50, world no. 20:
Average 2019: 1,562, average 2018: 1,641, average 2017: 1,580
Michael Nilsson 50, world no. 72:
Average 2019: 1,425, average 2018: 1,333, average 2017: 1,477.