Ask Dion Neline how he feels befor a match and he will always answer: ,,Aahhh, I'm not so bad.'' He looks as if billiard is just something nice, but nothing more in life and then pulls his shoulders up, when they ask hij about his chances against the opponent who awaits him. And it was like that when he first went to the billiard this afternoon for his match against Filipos Kasidokostas.
There is not such a big difference in age, the Greek is 27, the Dane 34, but the ambitions are far apart. Filipos Kasidokostas was the world champioen in 2009 in Lausanne and seems to be at the start of a great career. Dion Nelin has already a long career behind him. He won as a 23-year old talent in 1999 a Grand Prix in Bussum, Holland, when he beat Torbjörn Blomdahl in the semifinals and Marco Zanetti in the final.
,,The new Blomdahl is coming up'', the headlines in the newspapers screamed after the spectacular victory. But Dion Neline has made his breakthrough, he remained a talent forever, who can rise to great heights at times, with podium places in European and world championships, but he's too often plagued by poor motivation and concentration.
Tonight they faced each other: Kasidokostas and Nelin in the A-group of the Agipi Masters. It was seen as the revenge of the world championship, because Nelin robbed in Sluiskil last year his opponent from his chances on a new title.
The match tonight was an extraordinary, almost legendary game, a genuine thriller at the end. Nelin finished the match in the 27th inning, Kasidokostas faced the impossible task of eleven caroms in the equalizing inning.
The young Greek went to the billiard, started to score, made Nelin more and more nervous on his chair, but made only one big mistake. When he made his tenth point, he had pocketed the bonus and could easily make his last carom, but he played into the euphoria too quickly. The cue ball missed the point, because the second ball was being played too thin: 50-49 So after an exciting battle.
Dion Nelin again in the role of the giant killer, like he did in the preliminaries with Daniel Sánchez and Torbjörn Blomdahl. ,,I have a good chance now to reach the final round, this was one of the favourites that I defeated'', the Dane realized.
The match itself began with Kasidokostas in a leading role at the beginning (14 to 13 with a run of eight and then 24-19). Nelin, the champion of the mimicry, slowly came into his rhythm and took the lead over halfway: 36-27. Then he went in the 22nd inning with a run of six to a great gap and with 6, 4 and 2 to 48 points, two from the finish.
Then it was Kasidokostas'turn, first with eight and later in the equalizer with ten. But it was just not enough to make tie the match.
Glenn Hofmann, the best youth player of the preliminaries, was early in his game with Korean Sung-Won Choi not a real challenger for his opponent. It was not that good what the Dutchman showed, he fought against itself and always kept circling around one average. But still he got his opportunities.
The Korean struggled with his jet lag and was vulnerable on the first day, so it seemed. Hofman glanced in the 23rd inning with a run of nine and took the lead for the first time in the match (34-30).
The end rush again was for Choi, who suddenly woke up and made sixteen points in his last two innings: from 34-39 behind to 50 and the win in thirty innings (50-41).