3-Cushion
GURI – The Asian party, with stunning victories of Dong Koong Kang over Torbjörn Blomdahl and Jae Ho Cho against Marco Zanetti, turned the world of three cushion upside down. At the start of a long day in the World Cup of Guri, Torbjörn Blomdahl lost important points for his first place in the world ranking. Frédéric Caudron can be the new number one if he wins the tournament. And Marco Zanetti lost his long, unbeaten status.
The Swede was beaten by an amazing Korean, Dong Koong Kang, the imperturbable looking player, who overran Caudron (then also number one on the rank) last year 3-0 in sets. Blomdahl also was overpowered by his opponent, although the Swede played an excellent match with 2.500 average.
The Korean giant, however, was a role model of regularity in scoring. He reached the finish with two six runs, one of eight and one of nine in 12 innings: 40-30, 3.333/2.500.
Frédéric Caudron, who will show up later in this round against Roland Forthomme, needs three more wins to be the new world's number one. The Belgian will lose 54 points from the World Cup in Matosinhos in 2011. Blomdahl deserved only 26 points in that tournament.
Marco Zanetti, the top gun of the year, was beaten in Korea for the first time in many months. The Italian was fighting like a lion, but could not stop his opponent. Jae Ho Cho led 20-12 after a flying start (run of 10). Zanetti fought back with runs of 5 and 6 to a lead of 23-21, ran out to 36-32, but was knocked down by a rush of eight to the finish: 40-36 in 17 innings.
The Asian party was even more impressive in this first round of the last sixteen. Tatsuo Arai defeated Sung Won Choi (40-38 in 25) and Vietnamese Ngo Dinh Nai sealed victory against Lüfi Cenet: 40-38 in 23.
The next matches:
Bury-Kasidokostas
Jaspers-Coklu
Sánchez-Hwang
Forthomme-Caudron.