GURI - The Swedish whirlwind Torbjörn Blomdahl played for magician and tormentor on the day before the finals at the World Cup in Guri. The 51-year-old phenom with a huge palmares of titles outplayed the last Korean Jae Ho Cho in an outstanding match. The match was a highlight in the tournament so far. The Swede had a lightning start and ran after out to 23-1 after a run of twelve in the fourth inning.
But then Jae Cho showed his great fighting spirit: the Korean came back in the game at 28-24 when Blomdahl struck another twelve. But after the Swede had finished, Cho equalized with six. In the penalty shots Blomdahl was the master of the game again. He started with six from the break; Jae Ho Cho missed his third carom. The Korean went out of the tournament with an unimaginable 2.926 average over three matches.
Torbjörn Blomdahl plays in the semifinals against Eddy Merckx, who defeated Dick Jaspers 40-27 in 22 innings. The other semifinal is between Frédéric Caudron and Nguyen Quoc Nguyen.
How unbelievably strong the tournament is, was demonstrated again in these four matches in the run up to the final day.
Frédéric Caudron had a theory after he had won his two matches today: for a main tournament like the World Cup in Guri, the billiards must be perfect, the atmosphere in the billiardroom is very important and of course, the player has to be in a great form and needs a lot of confidence. The Belgian's average is extremely high (2.500) over three matches, his theory works flawlessly. Torbjörn Blomdahl has even 2.727 over three matches, close to a new world record.
,,We can play on fantastic billiards '', said Caudron after his victories over Jung Han Heo and Jérémy Bury. ,,The atmosphere here is always good, because South Korea, my second home, is a billiard country par excellence.''
And that the form is extremely good didn't only show Caudron in this tournament, also the three other players who are in the semifinals: Torbjörn Blomdahl, Eddy Merckx and Nguyen Quoc Nguyen play three cushion from another planet.
The progression in the world tour is enormous in the last few years and is focused on the best countries for the moment: South Korea, Belgium, Vietnam and Turkey. As it was seen at the World Cup in Guri. The individually best player is Torbjörn Blomdahl, of course. The Swede is indestructible, he's still the record holder World Cup average since last year with 2.739 and the main challenger of Caudron for the world rankings.
The Swede has started as a whirlwind again in Korea with 2.727 over three matches, but was still surpassed by the man he defeated, Jae Ho Cho, who had 3.076 after two games and leaves the tournament with 2.926.
Frédéric Caudron played his last game on Saturday against an old friend: Jérémy Bury, who was his teammate for years in the famous Agipi team. The Belgian lost only three times in his career against this opponent: when he was 20 caroms ahead in a match at the European team championships. His opponent attacked with 18 to the finish. The other losses were in the Dutch leage and in Lausanne. All the other matches were won by Caudron. The most impressive was the victory in the Belgian league: 50-4 in 9 innings.
The Vietnamese Nguyen Quoc Nguyen, the owner of one of the thousand billiard clubs in Ho Chi Minh City, continued his punitive expedition against the Koreans. The 32-year-old Vietnamese eliminated first Chi Yeon Cho, in his next game Kyung-Roul Kim and now the last Guri winner Koong Kang Dong from: 40-32 in 18.
Eddy Merckx led in his match with Dick Jaspers, his teammate in the Dutch and the Belgian league, from the first innings. The Dutchman looked tired after his great and thrilling match against Cenet and was beaten by Merckx 40-27 in 22.
The semi-finals:
Frédéric Caudron-Quoc Nguyen Nguyen
Torbjörn Blomdahl-Eddy Merckx.