HO CHI MINH - The head field of sixteen finalists, which is starting today (Saturday) in the knock-out phase of the World Cup in Ho Chi Minh, has a special composition. With four players, the Belgians and Turks have the main input in the final rounds. The almost complete European top, with the exception of Torbjörn Blomdahl, is in the race for the main prizes, but the Asian stars, on their own ground, are not with the numbers we all expected. The Korean stronghold in global three cushion has only one player: the best of all 32 on the first day of the main draw and biggest talent in the world, Myung-Woo Cho. The Vietnamese are left with two players: Duc Anh Chien Nguyen and Dinh Nai Ngo.
The 'loners' come from the Netherlands (Dick Jaspers), Italy (Marco Zanetti), Spain (Dani Sánchez), Egypt (Sameh Sidhom) and the most striking final player from Costa Rica (Erick Tellez). The Korean and Vietnamese top missed the qualifications to the huge regret of the Asian home crowd: Sung-Won Choi, Jae-Ho Cho, HaengJik Kim and Jung-Han Heo are missing on the final gala, like the Vietnamese who were on the the main podium at the World Cup last year in Ho Chi Minh: Quyet Chien Tran, the world's number three, and Nguyen Quoc Nguyen, the Asian champion of two years ago.
With the sixteen remaining players, the tournament enters the last four sessions. The eighth finals start at 13.00 Vietnamese time (8.00 in Brussels, 9.00 in Istanbul), the second session in this round two hours later. For example, the fans who want to see the match between Belgians Eddy Leppens and Roland Forthomme can watch it on Kozoom at 8.00, Eddy Merckx against Dani Sánchez can be seen in Europe at 10.00.
The schedule for the eighth finals:
1st session:
Myung-Woo Cho-Birol Uymaz
Marco Zanetti-Sameh Sidhom
Semih Sayginer-Duc Anh Chien Nguyen
Eddy Leppens-Roland Forthomme
2nd session:
Tayfun Tasdemir-Erick Tellez
Dani Sanchez-Eddy Merckx
Frédéric Caudron-Murat Naci Coklu
Dick Jaspers-Dinh Nai Ngo.
Sameh Sidhom, as usual the only African player in the final field
Frédéric Caudron, one of four Belgians
Murat Naci Coklu, one of four Turks in the best sixteen