GURI - At the World Cup podium in Guri, Korea, where an impressive battalion of Korean cameras is showing every move of the players, the Korean player Myoung Sin Yoon was the first to be killed at the table. He was the victim of Belgian world champion Frédéric Caudron's scoring drift in the early hours. The world's best reached the break after thirteen minutes and finished in 39 minutes: 40-19 in 13.
Young Haeng Jik Kim, who makes a stunning comeback after his disease, was very close to a sensation in his bump with the best Korean on the ranking lists, Sung-Won Choi. And Jérémy Bury won in the first day round the battle with Dani Sánchez, which was so important for the top twelve in the world rankings.
The Korean billiard masters in three cushion are eager for new highlights in the confrontation with the world top. They were with eleven in the main tournament, after two sessions of four rounds today (Friday) there are seven left. Haeng Jik Kim (against Choi) Myoung Sin Yoon (against Caudron), Chi Yeon Cho (against Nguyen) and Hyung Bum Hwang (against Kasidokostas) were sent home in the first round.
The last winner in their own country, Dong Koong Kang, knows very well, after the last World Cup in Guri (2013), how much impact it has to win a World Cup for his home crowd. He started with a win, in an otherwise not so best match against Kostas Papakonstantinou: 40-33 in 33). Another Korean celebrity, Kyung-Roul Kim did what was expected: he defeated Javier Teran 40-31 in 31.
Frédéric Caudron gave the audience a foretaste of what is to be expected, with his rocket start (4-11-6-0-6, making 27 in five innings). ,,I suffered a hick-up after that start'', said the Belgian afterwards, who needed eight innings for his last thirteen: 40-19 in 13.
The Vietnamese billiard club owner Quoc Nguyen Nguyen was another stunning winner in this round. The English speaking countryman defeated Chi Yeon Cho 40-12 in 15 innings. And Filipos Kasidokostas punished his Korean opponent Hwang for a minor finish and was ruthless at the end: 40-37 in 21.
The preliminaries days were already very exciting, now, with the best 32 in the world, there will be more fireworks in the arena. And more tension, as the duel between Korean Sung-Won Choi (the veteran) and Haeng Jik Kim (the comeback kid) showed.
The young, four time junior world champion was so close to victory at 37-32. He made his 38th, but failed for his next carom which was so makeable. Sung-Won Choi, who is of all the Koreans known for his most feared killer mentality, reached the finish two innings later and disturbed the illusions of the young Kim: 40-38 in 24.
Korean number one for the moment, Jung Han Heo was the better player in t: 40-26 in 22. Dani Sánchez, who received a wildcard, couldn't confirm his wonderful performance that he showed in the Porto World Cup. He was beaten by French player Jérémy Bury in the fight which was so important for the occupation of the top twelve spots. Bury had a much better start to the tournament and won 40-38 in 22 innings. He still needs more, because he loses the 54 points for the ranking that he gained at the World Cup in Antalya two years ago.