Champions gala with star players in great form

NEW YORK - The old master was beaten on the field of honor. Three other, absolute star players from the best country in the world’s three cushion stole the show and the matches over two average were models for a fantastic opening round of the day: Eddy Leppens 3.636, Roland Forthomme 2.352, Frédéric Caudron 2.222 and Torbjörn Blomdahl 2.105.

The start of the second day was a champions gala with top matches of the star players. Eddy Merckx’ victory in his match against Raymond Ceulemans, the former champion against the new, could not compete with the best matches: the world champion won 40-30 in 28 innings.

Eddy Leppens and Frédéric Caudron closed their matches in high speed: Caudron after a lightning start (30-6 in seven innings) against Sameh Sidhom (run eleven). The young Egyptian fought himself back to 31-20 in 14, but then was beaten 40-22 in 17.

Eddy Leppens kept the pace from the start to the finish against Harry Pena (16-9 in five, 32-14 in 9) and won 40-18 in 11 (3.636).

Roland Forthomme found a quick rhythm with a ten run in his match against Carlos Palafox (14-2 in four), continued his spectacular average (22-2 in 5, 4.400) and decreased from 29-9 to 40-12 in 17.

Eddy Merckx had a sort of walk-over against Raymond Ceulemans in the first innings (12-2 in 6, 15-5 in 9). The maestro came back returned in the match on 16-15, but could not close the gap at the end: 40-30 in 28.

Torbjörn Blomdahl played a very solid game against Brian Yi, took a 17-3 and 22-14 lead and decided the fight after the break: 40-24 in 19 (2.105).

Hugo Patino booked his second win in Group B against Daniel Reyes, Gerhard Kostistanski also recorded two wins out of three matches with a 40-23 victory over Ricardo Carranco.