3-Cushion
VEGHEL - The 27-year-old Korean HaengJik Kim has won his third World Cup in his career in Veghel in the Netherlands this Saturday. The former four-time junior world champion defeated the Turk Lütfi Cenet in the final in a crowded house after a miraculous come-back, 40-35 in 21 innings. The victory, after trailing 21-1 in three innings, looks even more spectacular, because Kim lost his first two matches in the tournament and returned from a precarious position. "This makes me very happy," said the amiable Korean after the ceremony in the arena in the 'Cultuurfabriek' in Veghel.
The first World Cup in the Netherlands in ten years turned out into a very exciting fight for gold. The match brought two players in the arena who still are in the shadow of the big champions of three cushion. HaengJik Kim craves for his first world title and seems ready for the upcoming three cushion World championship in four weeks in Denmark. Dick Jaspers defends his title there. Lütfi Cenet played his first World Cup final, had a wonderful start, but lost control of the game in the second half after leading half way 21-1 in three innings. "My opponent was mentally very strong," he admired HaengJik Kim for his high class and fighting spirit. ''I felt more pressure after that big lead and began to miss positions which cost me the match afterwards.''
HaengJik Kim won his first two World Cups in 2017, was less successful last year, but is back with his victory in Veghel as one of tastemakers of the circuit. The Korean climbed to third place on the world ranking with his victory, Lütfi Cenet is the number fourteen. Dick Jaspers retains his big lead over the numbers two and three: the Dutchman gathered 534 points, Marco Zanetti 286 and HaengJik Kim 280.
The semi-final matches
36-year-old Vietnamese Duc Anh Chien Nguyen was pretty unknown on the circuit of top players and a 'dark horse' in the field of the best four. 27-year-old Spaniard Antonio Montes returned to the big tournaments after his European junior title in 2014, but never reached a main tournament in a World Cup so far. HaengJik Kim and Lütfi Cenet were the more famous players in the semi-finals, especially 27-year-old Korean, who won two World Cups in a row in Korea and Porto in 2017.
Antonio Montes, from Barcelona, collapsed under pressure after he entered the break with 9, leading 25-8 in ten innings and feeling in a winning position. The experienced Turk fought back slowly, first to 28-21 and not much later to 35-34. Montes commented after the match: ''I felt the tension coming into me, even played one shot with the wrong ball and lost control over my chances.'' Cenet scored his last three points at 37-37, Montes made to in the equalizer, but missed the draw (40-39 in 31).
The Asian clash between HaengJik Kim and Duc Anh Chien Nguyen unexpectedly turned into a 'close finish'. The Vietnamese quickly was facing a wide deficit, Kim dominated the match, but after he finished at 40-32 in 22, Nguyen went to the table for the equalizer and only missed after six caroms at 40-38.
36-year-old Nguyen came into the spotlight for the first time in a World Cup: he started his three cushion career very late because he and his wife Óc Tiéu have a flourishing food company in Ho Chi Min City. Detail about his family with wife and son of five. The billiard player himself is named Duc Anh Chien Nguyen, his son Duc Anh Quan Nguyen. Chien is in English victory, Quan means king.
The World Cup in Veghel, the fifth in 2019 with two others to play in Guri (Korea) and Sharm El Sheikh (Egypt), was characterized by crowded stands and an overwhelming media attention. The organization announced a 'sold-out house' three days before the final stages. Harry Mathijssen and Ad Smout felt happy with the attention of the Dutch sports channel Ziggo Sport, which provided three days of broadcasts.
The tournament, in the region where Dick Jaspers lives not far from, started with the preliminaries, in which the Belgian Stef van Hees, the Danes Brian Knudsen (2,000 average) and Jacob Sörensen (2,727) led the rankings, where the two young French brothers Duriez were in the spotlights and the Dutchman Jeffrey Jorissen survived two days including a final run of sixteen. Jun-Tae Kim was the number one in the final qualification followed by Duc Anh Chien Nguyen and Dani Sánchez.
Four players averaged over 2 on the first day of the main draw (Jae-Ho Cho, Marco Zanetti, HaengJik Kim and Dani Sánchez). HaengJik Kim started with two losses and escaped thanks to his third match on average. Quyet Chien Tran started with two wins, made a final run of 19, and was out after the loss in his third match. Two Dutch wildcard holders and one Egyptian were eliminated after their three losses each. Antonio Montes, who has never entered a main tournament in a World Cup, started his run-up as the revelation of the tournament.
The tournament lost four former world champions in the quarter finals: Dick Jaspers, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Marco Zanetti and Eddy Merckx. Lütfi Cenet was the best winner in the last eight with 40 in 16 ahead of HaengJik Kim (18), Antonio Montes (21) and Duc Anh Chien Nguyen (22).
HaengJik Kim after his winning point in the final
The World Cup podium with the four finalists
Lütfi Cenet, beaten by HaengJik Kim in his second World final ever
The final ranking in Veghel:
1 HaengJik Kim 10-1.956-11
2 Lütfi Cenet 10-1.707-17
3 Duc Anh Chien Nguyen 8-1.697-9
3 Antonio Montes 8-1.685-13
5 Dick Jaspers 8-2.065-24
6 Marco Zanetti 8-1.956-10
7 Torbjörn Blomdahl 6-1.857-14
8 Eddy Merckx 6-1.613-10
9 Jae-Ho Cho 6-1.973-10
10 Semih Sayginer 6-1.602-11
11 Dani Sánchez 4-1.835-10
12 Jérémy Bury 4-1.720-9
13 Tayfun Tasdemir 4-1.681-10
14 Gökhan Salman 4-1.659-11
15 Nguyen Quoc Nguyen 4-1.344-14
16 Jun-Tae Kim 3-1.678-14
17 Quyet Chien Tran 4-1.770-19
18 Sung-Won Choi 4-1.677-11
19 Murat Naci Coklu 4-1.450-8
20 Jacob Sörensen 3-1.420-9.Tournament average 1.621.
The new world ranking
1 Dick Jaspers 534
2 Fréderick Caudron 296 (suspended)
2 Marco Zanetti 286
3 HaengJik Kim 280
4 Eddy Merckx 260
5 Semih Sayginer 259
6 Jae-Ho Cho 242
7 Tayfun Tasdemir 235
8 Quyet Chien Tran 232
9 Jérémy Bury 224
10 Sameh Sidhom 220
11 Murat Naci Coklu 212
12 Martin Horn 203
13 Torbjörn Blomdahl 197
14 Lütfi Cenet 181
15 Myung-Woo Cho 180
16 Nguyen Quoc Nguyen 179
17 Dani Sánchez 175
18 Jung-Han Heo 163
19 Roland Forthomme 151
20 Dion Nelin 140.