3-Cushion
When Dick Jaspers, the worlds number one, is playing against Kyung-Roul Kim, the number two, the billiard room is not sold out, like in tennis, where Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal play for a full house at the center courts. The Agipi arena nevertheless was pretty full this afternoon for the match between the top players, the more so because Jérémy Bury, since last night the crowds favorite, met on the other Jung Han Heo.
Two top matches at the same time, with two winners who now are almost sure entering the final round of the Masters. Dick Jaspers, who defeated Kim 50-32 in 16 innings, was the undisputed star of the afternoon. Jérémy Bury beat Jung Han Heo (50-20 in 20) and took, together with Jaspers, an advantage on the two Koreans in the group which will probably enough.
Jérémy Bury showed the audience that his performance last night in his match against Kim Kyung-Roul was not just a random outlier. The Agipi player played almost as well this afternoon against Heo, a feared opponent who has climbed the wolds top ranking very fast.
Yet Heo was now, against Bury, no shadow of what he was the day before. Heo even did some rarely seen things: he had occasionally hearing groans, was once sitting almost beside his chair and kept watching the scoreboard all the time, where he could see a disadvantage from the first innings.
Dick Jaspers found it on the other table at 28-28 (after two runs of eight and nine by Kyung-Roul Kim) time to take the initiative. With his sprint, he came to 40-29 in 14 innings, good for a decisive lead. The finish of the Dutchman was amazing. He made the final ten points in his last inning in intense concentration and won 50-32 in sixteen innings, an average of 3.125.
,,I had a much better feeling than yesterday'', Jaspers after the match. ,,I know Kim is also capable to do wonderful things on the billiard, but I kept my concentration until the end. This is a match that gives me an enormous confidence.''
Jaspers plays tonight again (22.00), against Jung Han Heo and certainly can look forward to the finals. Jérémy Bury also can prepare for a continue of the Masters after winning three matches. The Frenchman, who is still only in theory to catch by Korean Heo, has a much higher average.
The average of the group is already exceptionally high with 1.976, what Jérémy Bury (2.542 in three matches) and Dick Jaspers (2.174 in two) show is an extraordinary class.
Bury just like Jaspers played a fantastic final against Heo. He led the entire match after a run of nine in the seventh, after sixteen innings he had an advantage of 30-10 and he finished with thirteen in the twentieth inning.
Bury will play his his last match against Jaspers tomorrow.