SCHILTIGHEIM - Filippos Kasidokostas has played 2.074 average over three matches, the highest run of the prelims so far with 16, but even with these scores the Greek is almost without any chance for a place in the final round. Two losses against Marco Zanetti and Tayfun Tasdemir and one victory over Roux are not enough to qualify, as it looks like now.
World class, but almost out of the game.
The situation is nearly hopeless: Kasidokostas depends on what Marco Zanetti and Tayfun Tasdemir will do in their next matches. They lead the ranking in Group A with two wins. The Italian and the Turk are the main competitors: to win one of two matches, will be good for qualification.
Furthermore, Kasidokostas himself has to beat Torbjörn Blomdahl in his last match.
Marco Zanetti (who had a free round) and Tayfun Tasdemir are the stars in this group until now with four match points out of two and averages of 2.439 and 2.222.
Zanetti will play against Blomdahl in his next match, Tasdemir against Roux. And on the last day Zanetti and Tasdemir play against each other.
The third round in this group was a session without any tension: Tasdemir kicked down Blomdahl, who seemed not to have the right focus: he missed the break-off and could not recover from a poor start: 50-24 in 23.
The Turk was extremely kind to his opponent: ,,The positions were very favorable for me, for Torbjörn it was a hard fight, he could not get grip.'' The reality was that the Swede did not show his usual confidence and he missed his perfect feel.
Filippos Kasidokostas did a desperate attempt to save his situation with a strong performance. He defeated Jean Christophe Roux 50-17 in 23 with a sixteen-run in the tenth inning.
,,I can not blame myself too much,'' the Greek said, when he referred to his previous matches in which Zanetti and Tasdemir closed the game in 22 and 23 innings. ,,I would have had a little chance when I had tied in the match against Zanetti.'' At the finish of that match, he was two points behind.