ANTWERPEN – Frédéric Caudron has not won the most coveted title in 3-cushion in fourteen years. Can he do it this Sunday afternoon, on his home turf? The Belgian audience in the Lotto Arena wants that dream finish to the WC, but the top favorite will first have to deal with Alexander Salazar from Colombia in the semifinal, and then stand up against the winner of the match between Dick Jaspers and Filippos Kasidokostas, for the gold.
This evening (Saturday), the quarterfinal results were:
Kasidokostas-Polychronopoulos 40-24 in 11.
Caudron-Horn 40-16 in 15 innings (Caudron, run of 17).
Jaspers-Tasdemir 40-35 in 22.
Salazar-Zanetti 40-23 in 25 innings.
The tournament exceeds all expectations at the box office, and has so far been unpredictable enough to give us a final day with a twist. Frédéric Caudron was not the only player who shone, in the last rounds.
Filippos Kasidokostas played and beat his countryman Nikos Polychronopoulos with an average of 3.636 (40 in 11 innings), he was the best of the four future semifinalists.
Dick Jaspers, known for his tremendous fighting spirit, excelled twice on this penultimate day (against Eddy Merckx and against Tayfun Tasdemir), both times with an astounding comeback.
The Dutchman had a bad start (15 in 15) against Tasdemir, but came back from 29-14 and made no mistake in the deciding stages.
Colombian Salazar was this WC ’s breakout player, with victories over Dong Koong Kang, Sung-Won Choi and in the semifinal Marco Zanetti. The Italian player of the year experienced the inevitable relapse during this WC. In the afternoon he managed to overcome Javier Teran in a penalty shootout, but in the evening hours he looked spent and uninspired, when Salazar beat him 40 – 20 in 25.
Crowd favorite Caudron was cheered on by two Belgian members of Cabinet (Sport and Justice), and dealt with Martin Horn in spectacular fashion. The closing of the match was a thing of beauty: Caudron came to the table in the 14th inning, needing eighteen more points to win. He got as far as seventeen, missing the last one, a makeable short-angle.
,,I can say I have made lots of difficult points’’, he said after his sparkling performance, ,,but I have also made a number of unforced errors.’’ It was the commentary of the perfectionist, who may give the Belgian 3-cushion community the ultimate gift this Sunday.
Filippos Kasidokostas dominated the last match of the evening session, when he met his Greek companion Nikos Polychronopoulos. That match was decided rather early, when former world champion Kasidokostas (Lausanne, 2009) ran a 12 in the 4th inning, and added 8 two innings later (27-12). He finished the job in the 12th inning: 40-24.
Tomorrow is semi-final day, at 13.00:
Kasidokostas-Jaspers
Caudron-Salazar.
The final is at 16.00.