EL GOUNA - He may have had two World Cup victories in 2016, but histhe year of Frédéric Caudron did not end on a high note. The rapid eliminations of the Belgian player in the La Baule and El Gouna tournaments, as well as the Bordeaux world championship, have endangered his leading position on the season and overall rankings.
The sultry Egyptian adventure ended on the opening day of the season's last World Cup already, due to Korean rising star Hyung Kon Kim's ambitions: he beat Caudron 40-36 in 24. The second Korean / Belgian confrontation was even more spectacular. Roland Forthomme looked to be headed for a smooth win over Jung-Han Heo (37-23, which became 40-33), when the inconsistent Korean suddenly found his groove in the equalizing inning. A cold-blooded and accurate Heo ran the required seven. Then Forthomme shot himself in the foot by missing the break in the shootout and the Korean only needed one point to win.
Two of the four Belgians were thus eliminated in the morning round, and Eddy Leppens followed soon after when he had no chance against Ahmet Alp (40-16 in 17). Only Eddy Merckx was left standing, when he won the third Korean / Belgian battle, beating Choong Bok Lee 40-35 in 25. The first day of the El Gouna main tournament saw great endings to the matches of Jung-Han Heo, Sameh Sidhom and Haeng-Jik Kim.
For Frédéric Caudron, the damage is not insurmountable. The overall World Cup win, which provides a place in the Supercup duel against world champion Dani Sánchez is at stake but yet undecided. Dick Jaspers can take Caudron's place if he survives two rounds in Egypt. The Belgian's nr. 1 position on the world ranking will be in danger if either Jaspers or Sanchez wins the Egyptian tournament.
These two, the nr. two and three players on the ranking, did not have much trouble in getting to the next round. Dani Sánchez ran a twelve early in his match against Jae Guen Kim (40-26 in 19). Dick Jaspers had one of his slower tournament starts against former Dutch league teammate Tonny Carlsen. The Dutchman allowed him to keep up until 16-15, then ran away to win 40-24 in 28. Semih Sayginer put up a fight, but in the end lost to Torbjörn Blomdahl who had the better finish. The Turk had a 28-24 lead after a run of six, but Blomdahl was in charge for the remainder: 40-34 in 21. Jérémy Bury had no opposition from Riad Nady (40-17 in 18) and Martin Horn, still in the event as lucky loser, bested a surprisingly tame Nikos Polychronopoulos: 40-23 in 25.
Lütfi Cenet lost a nailbiter to Haeng-Jik Kim, and had plenty to ponder afterwards. With early runs of ten and six he had built up a 27-11 lead, later 30-18 in 11. The Korean champion finished strongly, and was the first to have match point at 39-34. Cenet closed the gap with three and also ran three in the equalizer (after 22 innings), thanks to a superb second point. In the shootout, Haeng Jik only made two, but Cenet did not capitalize because of a kiss in his second shot. Murat Naci Coklu had an easy match against Murat Tüzül, who had an up and down tournament. Coklu led 27-4 and won 40-17 in 23.
The youthful ambitions of Myung-Woo Cho, junior world champion, were restrained by one of his countrymen. Dong-Koong Kang had a better touch than the 18-year old prodigy. At almost the same time, Sameh Sidhom gave his home crowd a reason to cheer. Greek Kostas Kokkoris had run a 9 and an 11 early in the match and was close to the finish line, but Sidhom produced a decisive seven to beat him to it: 40-37 in 29.
Quyet Chien Tran, in his new look, sent Egyptian wildcard recipient Erfan home to mother (40-16) and Marco Zanetti was equally merciless on poor Henry Diaz, who after a single match was on his way to far Colombia again (40-28 in 20). Kwang-Yeol Park still enjoys a tail wind in the resort of waving palm trees. He is one of the second-echelon Koreans, who needed to qualify. In a flight with two other Koreans, he survived and later beat Dave Christiani and Pedro Piedrabuena. Now, he eliminated one of the best of his countrymen, Jae-Ho Cho, recording a 40-21 in 17 win.
Tomorrow's matches: 11.00 (local time):
Hyung-Kon Kim-Quyet Chien Tran
Dong-Koong Kang-Sameh Sidhom
Kwang-Yeol Park-Marco Zanetti
Jung-Han Heo-Eddy Merckx
13.00: Dick Jaspers-Ahmet Alp
Dani Sánchez-Murat Naci Coklu
Martin Horn-Jérémy Bury
Torbjörn Blomdahl-Haeng-Jik Kim.
Semih Sayginer and Torbjörn Blomdahl shake hands before their match, won by Blomdahl
Haeng-Jik Kim came back from far behind and outplayed Lütfi Cenet
The Korean Hyung-Kon Kim overpowered Frédéric Caudron in the opening session
Jung-Han Heo, stunt man in the final part against Forthomme
Roland Forthomme found his killer when he seemed a certain winner
Dani Sánchez gets ready for the shot
Sameh Sidhom escaped with a final run of 7
Tonny Carlsen, job is done, take some days on the beach
Quyet Chien Tran, a new look and a great start
Dong-Koong Kang stunned his young countryman Myung-Woo Cho
Eddy Merckx on his chair, Brenda, his wife, in the stands, both showing the tension of the match
UMB president Farouk Barki to start the World Cup in El Gouna, Antoine Chart (right) the referee and announcer
The trofphys for the World Cup in El Gouna