3-Cushion
LIMA - Not too far from Cuenca in Ecuador, where took the world title in his most glorious year, Ryuuji Umeda rose to great hights last night in Lima and showed that he still can be one of the best players in the world. The Japanese was fighting for a place among the top sixteen of the world: he had to beat Murat Naci Coklu 3-1, lost the first set 15-2 and looked desperately around the billiard room. Umeda seemed on his way to an early dead in Lima.
Then, in a sudden revival, the stylish fighter showed his courage and gave the match another face. Ryuuji outclassed his opponent, made a gap in the second and third set 15-6 (5) and 15-0 (5) and won in a glimmer of euphoria the fourth set 15-8 in ten innings. What nobody expected, happened in the last session of the evening. The Japanese turned out to the winner of his group and was seeded as number sixteen for the main tournament.
Even more exciting was the match between Lütfi Cenet and Raimond Burgman, two players who battled for every carom and after 15-9, 9-15, 11-15 and 15-7 had to play a fifth set for the decision. The match ended in an absolute thriller, in which the Turk and the Dutchman wasted some favorable positions. Burgman missed three times the matchball at 14-14 (twice an easy ball), Cenet finally made his fifteenth in the eleventh inning after two efforts.
Eddy Leppens balanced on the edge of the abyss in his match against Kouji Funaki, after he had lost the first set 15-14, won the second and the third 15-10, 15-2 and then lost the fourth 15-8. At primetime, the Belgian walked cold-blooded to the finish: he had a strong final sprint and beat his opponent 15-4 in the deciding set in four innings.
Jung Han Heo shared himself to the best sixteen by beating Raymundo Munoz (3-0), the last South American player who was put out of the tournament.
Roland Forthomme was killed in an earlier session by Javier Palazón, the Spanish former world number three, who put his opponent on the rack (3-0, 2.250/1.263). In the second set there was a minor incident, when the Belgian exceeded the time limit and the match was stopped for a few minutes.
Marco Zanetti defeated Dong Gung Kang 3-1, Tayfun Tasdemir was eliminated by Jae Ho Cho (3-2) and Jérémy Bury didn't show any compassion to Javier Vera (3-0).