SCHILTIGHEIM - He has sawn his oats, the typical smile is still there, but Dion Nelin else in life than in his younger years. ,, I'm getting older and I am not that wild anymore,'' the 36-year-old Dane said after having qualified for the next round of the Masters Agipi.
The whimsical class, with which he climbed up to the world top in a very short time when he was a young player, he still can demonstrate when he's on his best. Like in his last game against Roland Forthomme: he had a tough start, but a fantastic final rush.
His last 33 points (after 17 in 16 innings) Nelin made very rapidly, in eight innings. ,,I first suffered lots of bad positions in the match, then I could find my rhythm.''
With his win Dion Nelin finished as winner in his group before Jean Christophe Roux and Javier Palazón. The Spaniard played en excellent game as well against Raimond Burgman (50-38 in 31), but missed the qualification, because Nelin and Roux gathered six match points and Palazón only five.
The young Spanish player lost his first match against Roux, played a draw against Forthomme and won his duels with Burgman and Nelin. Raimond Burgman could only shine in one match: against Roland Forthomme, in which the Dutch number two after Dick Jaspers briefly showed his big class (50-36 in 28).
Dion Nelin, who has a temporary job in summer and is playing billiards in the winter (,,but I also spend some time with other things''), closed the preliminaries with 1.591.
As it looks now, he will be in the next round in a group with Martin Horn, Eddy Merckx, Jérémy Bury and Cenet Lütfi, but that depends on the outcome of the match between Polychronopoulos and Leppens in the last round.