LAUSANNE - At the end of the evening, on the first day of the Lausanne Billard Masters, the well deserved applause was for Frédéric Caudron. The Belgian grandmaster coloured the opening day of the tournament with two brilliant performances: his first against Xavier Gretillat, 40-8 in 16, his second of the day against Dong-Koong Kang, 40-28 in 13. Caudron's average over two matches: an impressive: 2.758.
The world's number one, back from a short trip to South Korea where he signed a wonderful contract with his main sponsor Kimchi, has dealt with the jet lag and seems to be ready for his first race to victory in the Lausanne Masters. The two previous winners, Marco Zanetti (twice) and Dick Jaspers, started the tournament with variable success. Zanetti played once and bested Jae-Ho Cho (40-31 in 21), Jaspers won his first against Michel Boulaz, but was defeated by Cho, 40-25 in 19.
The two groups, in which two of the five players advance to the semi-finals on Sunday, are completely open. Jérémy Bury, in the group with Caudron, played only one match like Zanetti and Sánchez in the other group. Bury defeated Gretillat 40-12 in 24 innings after 16-1 in 7.
Marco Zanetti and Dani Sánchez, the new world champion, lead in Group A, each with one matched played and one won. Jae-Ho Cho recorded the best average in this group (1.775), but lost one match. Michel Boulaz, like Xavier Gretillat in the other group, is acting in the star player's shadow. The two Swiss are already eliminated after two matches, Boulaz recorded 0.622, Gretillat, a well known balk-line player, only 0.500.
The second group is led by the sovereign Frédéric Caudron, followed by Jérémy Bury who won his match and averaged 1.538. The two leaders meet today, Saturday, at 12.15. Dong Koong Kang is forced to chase after his loss against Caudron, Torbjörn Blomdahl, who lost his first match against Kang (40-33 in 25), can't afford another misstep.
The ranking after one day:
Group A:
1 Marco Zanetti 1-2-1.905-9
2 Dani Sánchez 1-2-1.538-6
3 Jae-Ho Cho 2-2-1.775-6
4 Dick Jaspers 2-2-1.710-8
5 Michel Boulaz 2-0-0.622-4
Group B:
1 Frédéric Caudron 2-4-2.758-12
2 Jérémy Bury 1-2-1.667-8
3 Dong-Koong Kang 2-2-1.789-9
4 Torbjörn Blomdahl 1-0-1.320-8
5 Xavier Gretillat 2-0-0.500-3.
Today, Saturday, there is a full schedule in Casino Montbenon in Lausanne, with six rounds of two matches. There are some interesting matches planned, like Jaspers-Sánchez (10.00), Caudron-Bury (12.15), Zanetti-Sánchez (14.30), Blomdahl-Bury (16.45), Sánchez-Cho and Jaspers-Zanetti (19.00) and Bury-Kang and Caudron-Blomdahl in the last session.
The Montbenon casino where the Lausanne Billard Masters is played
The matches for today, Saturday:
10.00:
Dick Jaspers-Dani Sánchez
Marco Zanetti-Michel Boulaz
12.15:
Frédéric Caudron-Jérémy Bury
Torbjörn Blomdahl-Xavier Gretillat
14.30:
Marco Zanetti-Dani Sánchez
Jae-Ho Cho-Michel Boulaz
16.45:
Torbjörn Blomdahl-Jérémy Bury
Dong-Koong Kang-Xavier Gretillat
19.00:
Dani Sánchez-Jae-Ho Cho
Dick Jaspers-Zanetti
21.45:
Jérémy Bury-Dong-Koong Kang
Frédéric Caudron-Torbjörn Blomdahl