TRABZON - The first finalist of the World Cup in Trabzon is known. Eddy Merckx this morning defeated in his well-known style Torbjörn Blomdahl 3-1. The Belgian like always was a model of regularity in four sets, he made a run of nine in the first inning, but still had to hand over the set to Blomdahl.
But with three sets, won by 15-3 (9), 15-9 (6) and 15-12 (13), Merckx towered above his famous opponent. The Swede, who scored very high averages in his previous matches in Trabzon, now only finished with 1.258. The Belgian played an average of 1.687, with a solidity that makes him to a feared finalist later in the afternoon.
Eddy Merckx won a World Cup tournament twice before, in the early stage of his career in Barendrecht (Netherlands), where he appeared as a timid little man at the press conference. Two years ago he won the tournament in Matosinhos, where he beat Jérémy Bury in the semifinal and Nikos Polychronopoulos in the final.
Merckx, the number four at the world ranking, can climb two places if he wins the final. He already passed Frédéric Caudron and is at least the number third at the ranking now. It depends on the outcome of Kyung-Roul Kim if Merckx even will be the second behind Dick Jaspers.