WONJU - The 16 players who have qualified for the final stage at the World 3-cushion Grand Prix in Korea started the first rounds of play early this Tuesday morning. The first rounds have already been played. Victories among others for Haeng Jik Kim, Eddy Merckx, Torbjörn Blomdahl and Marco Zanettie, while the first losers included Dick Jaspers, Dani Sánchez and Dion Nelin. The winners have to win another match today to make it to the top eight, the losers in the first round get a second chance.
Korean Haeng Jik Kim was one of the best winners in the first rounds against Pedro Piedrabuena, 2-0 and 2.363 on average. Marco Zanetti won his match against Dion Nelin 2-0 and 2.214, Tayfun Tasdemir was a strong winner against Myeong Jong Cha 2-1 and also among the best winners, 2.166 on average.
The other winners were:
Eddy Merckx against Murat Naci Coklu (2-1, 1.227 for Merckx, 1.666 for Coklu)
Torbjörn Blomdahl against Hyung Kon Kim (2-1, 1.428 for Blomdahl, 1.578 for Kim)
Sung Won Choi against Dani Sánchez (2-1, 1.043 for Choi, 1.291 for Sánchez)
Nikos Polychronopoulos against Dick Jaspers (2-1, 1.291 for Poly, 1.130 for Jaspers)
Jung Han Heo against Sameh Sidhom (2-1, 1,523 for Heo, 1,500 for Sidhom).
The final stage of the Grand Prix, which must lead to the finals tomorrow, Wednesday, with an eventual top prize of 100,000 euros, continues on this Tuesday: first, the losers of the first round play each other in the re-chance, then the eight winners from the first rounds will meet. The winners of those matches are qualified among the top eight.
These matches are:
Merckx-Blomdahl
Zanetti-CW Choi
Polychronopoulos-Tasdemir
Heo-HJ Kim
The matches in the losers' round are:
Jaspers-Cha
Nelin-Sánchez
Coklu-HK Kim
Sidhom-Piedrabuena.
Eddy Merckx and Murat Naci Coklu played an exciting match in the opening rounds. The Belgian won the first set 14-6, lost the second 18-1 and battled his way to a 12-11 victory in the third set thanks to a run of five in the last inning with the seconds ticking away. Torbjörn Blomdahl also had such a strong finish against Hyung Kon Kim with a winning run of 4 in the last seconds.
Marco Zanetti was superior in the first set against Dion Nelin (17-4 in 7) and slipped through the finish in the second at 14-13 with a final run of 6. Dani Sánchez and Sung Won Choi even needed penalties to decide the match after winning two sets each (16-3, 6-12) and a draw in the third set (9-9). Dani Sánchez started the penalties with 2, Sung Won Choi answered 3 and won the match.
Nikos Polychronopoulos and Dick Jaspers tied 12-12 in the first set, the Greek won the next two sets 7-6 and 12-8. Tayfun Tasdemir was the better player against Myeong Jong Cha in set 1 (15-6) and set 3 (14-7). Jung Han Heo defeated Sameh Sidhom 2-1 (11-10 in the third set). Haeng Jik Kim dominated the first set against Piedrabuena 16-7 in 5 and won the second set by 1 point: 10-9 in 6.
Preliminary stage
The preliminary stage with the six groups of five players (four games each) was finished on Monday evening. The top two from each group and four best numbers three moved on to the 16 who started the double knockout on Tuesday. One of the contenders who were eliminated was Quyet Chien Tran.
The final rankings in the six group were:
Group A:
1 Dick Jaspers 9-1,771-8
2 Sameh Sidhom 9-1,870-9
3 Sung Won Choi 9-1,624-10
Eliminated: WY Choi and JM Soares
Group B:
1 Dion Nelin 9-2,094-10
2 Myeong Jong Cha 6-1,526-10
Eliminated BJ Hwang, Quyet Chien Tran, Huberney Cataño
Group C:
1 Haeng Jik Kim 12-2,661-13
2 Torbjörn Blomdahl 7-1,515-9
3 Pedro Piedrabuena 6-2,016-10
Eliminated Ruben Legazpi, TTT Nguyen
Group D:
1 Eddy Merckx 12-1,970-12
2 Marco Zanetti 5-1,354-12
Eliminated: DAC Nguyen, Pedro Gonzalez, CB Lee
Group E:
1 Tayfun Tasdemir 9-2,152-16
2 Jung Han Heo 6-1,782-11
3 Murat Naci Coklu 6-2,106-10
Eliminated: Jun Tae Kim, Sam van Etten
Group F:
1 Dani Sánchez 9-2,296-20
2 Hyun Kon Kim 9-1,666-8
3 Nikos Polychronopoulos 9-1,746-7
Eliminated SY Park, Miyashita