VIERSEN - The last, sparkling match in the preliminary rounds of the World championship in Viersen was the highlight in the three-days battle. Frédéric Caudron led the reigning world champion to a comfortable victory against Portugal (4-0) and excelled himself with the best performance so far: 40-9 in ten innings. The victim: the young Portuguese Joao Ferreira.
The Belgians were a way too strong at two tables. The Belgian number one Eddy Merckx bested Rui Costa: 40-21 in 22. Frédéric Caudron starred with a run of five in the fifth inning of his match.
The Germans, with their captain Martin Horn (a win against Marco Zanetti, 40-38 in 16 after Horn was leading 24-5 in six) qualified as the last team for the quarterfinals.
The schedule for the first knockout round, where the Scotch Double system will be introduced:
17.00: Korea A-Korea B (Jae Ho Cho-Chi Yeon Cho, Jung-Han Heo-Hyung-Kon Kim).
Netherlands-Denmark (Dick Jaspers-Tonny Carlsen, Barry van Beers-Brian Zola Hansen).
20.00: Belgium-Spain (Eddy Merckx-Dani Sánchez, Frédéric Caudron-Ruben Legázpi)
Germany-Turkey (Martin Horn-Tayfun Tasdemir, Christian Rudolph-Adnan Yüksel).
Martin Horn and Marco Zanetti before the start of the last matches in the preliminaries
The individual ranking after the qualifications:
1 Frédéric Caudron 2-4-2.758-13
2 Jae Ho Cho 2-4-2.424-10
3 Torbjörn Blomdahl 2-4-1.951-12
4 Martin Horn 2-4-1.860-10
5 Roland Forthomme 2-4-1.739-13
5 Jérémy Bury 2-4-1.739-10
7 Jung-Han Heo 2-4-1.702-10
8 Eddy Merckx 2-4-1.702-7
9 Tonny Carlsen 2-4-1.666-10
10 Hyung Kon Kim 2-4-1.509-6
11 Tayfun Tasdemir 2-4-1.454-8
12 Brian Zola Hansen 2-4-1.403-14 Zola.
Players with two match points:
1 Dick Jaspers 1.780
2 Dani Sánchez 1.755
3 Nikos Polychronopoulos 1.688
4 Barry van Beers 1.619
5 Chi Yeon Cho 1.488.
The ranking of the eight teams on top:
1 Belgium 8-0-2.105
2 Korea 8-0-2.000
3 Denmark 8-0-1.523
4 Turkey 8-0-1.415
5 Germany 8-0-1.240
6 Korea B 6-2-1.540
7 Netherlands 4-4-1.698
8 Spain 4-4-1.449.
Belgian supporters cheering their teams in the preliminaries