Knock-out for star players at world parade

SANTA CRUZ - At the real World championship parade, the knock-out stage with 32 finalists, a hand ful of star players for a main role fell from the podium one by one. The world gold in three cushion already slipped away after one day for Haeng-Jik Kim, Dick Jaspers, Murat Naci Coklu, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen and Nikos Polychronopoulos. The opening day killed the illusions to shine at the world stage in Santa Cruz for five of the top guns and usual suspects. Most of all for Korean star Haeng-Jik Kim, hunting for his first men's world title.

In the late evening, with Jérémy Bury, Marco Zanetti and Sameh Sidhom at the tables, the lights in the arena suddenly all went out with a deafening bang. There was a moment of panic all around in the venue. The reason was that an electricity cable between the door caused a short circuiting. At three of the four billiards the games were stopped. It took an hour before the failure was resolved, but after the interruption the matches could continue.

The opening day of the main draw in the Bolivian town was dominated by high averages of two and more by Belgians Eddy Merckx and Eddy Leppens, Italian Marco Zanetti, Korean Sung-Won Choi, Vietnamese revelation Minh Cam Ma and Spanish, ruling champion Dani Sánchez. Two Americans, Javier Vera from Mexico and Fernando Diaz from Colombia, survived at the first battlefield of the gladiators. Eddy Leppens passed out the first knockout to Dick Jaspers in the best match of the day: 40-27 in 15 innings (2.666/1.888). The second of three Belgians, Eddy Merckx, later knocked down another Dutchman, Glenn Hofman, 40-25 in 16 (2.500/1.562).

The front runner after the pre-rounds, Minh Cam Ma, continued his days of glory by beating Can Capak (40-32 in 20). Marco Zanetti had a masterly start against Dinh Nai Ngo (40-33 in 17) and Dani Sánchez countered Erick Tellez's attack: 40-32 in 20. Anh Vu Duong was a way too strong for Jin Pio Hong (40-18 in 20) and Tayfun Tasdemir (40 in 21) and Jérémy Bury (40 in 23) were among the luminaries of the first day. The other top ten favorites, Torbjörn Blomdahl and Jae-Ho Cho (both 40 in 26) and Frédéric Caudron (40 in 27) remained stylish in the race.

The first day's stuntman was Mexican Javier Vera in his match against Murat Naci Coklu. The American led 29-19 after 11 innings, ran out to 36-21 and won, despite a short final splrint of the Turk, 40-36 in 24. The most exciting match was the battle between the Asians Jae-Ho Cho and Nguyen Quoc Nguyen. The Korean started the attack after 22-20 at the break with a run of ten (24th inning) and was already close to the finish at 39. He finished two innings later at 40-32. The Vietnamese equalizer was an almost-sensation. After seven from the spots, Nguyen missed out in the shot to draw (second ball to be hit very thin, but was missed). The reaction after the miss was great and funny, showing again the emotions of the brilliant crowd player.

Dick Jaspers actually had something to deal with Eddy Leppens. The Belgian outplayed him at the last World championship in Bordeaux last year, including a fatal run of 18. But Leppens, many times on his best at World championships, proved again to be stronger than his Dutch rival, who could only shine in the first innings with 9. Leppens was outstandi ng in his runs of 11 in the 11th (29-11) and his finish with eight in the 15th inning: 40-27. A delusion for Jaspers, maybe for Leppens a new opening to world's glory.

Eddy Merckx took the spotlights later in an uphill match with Glenn Hofman, when he took off like a cold diesel and exploded in a strong second part. On a score of 15-15, Merckx then raced to the end from the 9th inning with 8, 3, 4, 3, 4, 2, 4 and 5, where Hofman couldnt score more than ten times: 40-25 in 16. Haeng-Jik Kim was almost powerless in his match against Jung-Han Heo. The Korean battle didn't reach the high level that was expected. Heo played out at 40-27 in 31. Marco Zanetti scored 3 and 8 at the start against Dinh Nai Ngo, led 20-18 in 8 at the break and forced the gap with 14 in the 13th inning for an impeccable 40-33 in 17 David Martinez and Nikos Polychronopoulos, who lost his form, played a tough match, which was eventually won by the Spaniard.

Torbjörn Blomdahl could leave Guido Sacco behind with a run of 8 in the 17th inning and then grabbed the win at 40-27 in 26. Sung-Won Choi overwhelmed the American Pedro Piedrabuena (40-15 in 18), Frédéric Caudron defeated David Pennör 40-27 in 27 and Jérémy Bury closed the day with a victory over Greek Dionisis Tsokantas: 40-20 in 23.

The matches for the next round, this Saturday:

12.00 (17.00 European time):
Ma-Heo
Leppens-Vera
Martinez-Blomdahl
Merckx-Tasdemir

14.00 (19.00 Europe time):
Caudron-Cho
Sánchez-Choi
Duong-Zanetti
Diaz-Bury.

Eddy Leppens killed the illusions of Dick Jaspers

Eddy Merckx outplayed the last Dutch player Glenn Hofman

Vietnamese Nguyen showing his emotions after the one-point loss against Cho

Haeng-Jik Kim, out for his first men's world gold

The Mexican soldier Javier Vera was the stuntman of the day

Frédéric Caudron, solid win to start his mission

David Martinez defeated Nikos Polychronopoulos, who los his form and feeling

Jérémy Bury closed the day as the last winner

Tayfun Tasdemir, the last Turkish player in the title race

The arena in which the lights suddenly went out in the evening session