SCHILTIGHEIM - Two winners with a totally different story after the match. The Dane Dion Nelin has strong doubts whether he wants to continue his career, the Turk Lütfi Cenet is at the top of his form and wants to attack the world's top twelve this year.
The first skirmishes of the Agipi Masters came up with two surprising winners. Dion Nelin won his match against Jérémy Bury by a generous margin (50-43) and Lütfi Cenet defeated the world champion Eddy Merckx in an exciting final stage of the match (50-49).
Lütfi Cenet and Eddy Merckx played a vibrant and exciting match, witch ended in some thrilling last innings. The fifth matchbal of the Turk made an end to the game, which finally was decided on a carom.
Eddy Merckx was the first who came near to the finish, after he made a five in the 24th turn and then was two caroms away from closing the match. Lütfi Cenet had a strong endrush, with five, eight and four in his last sprint near the final.
The Belgian missed four times when he was at 48, scored one time and missed one time in a curious position on match point, when he was unlucky to hit the corner instead of the red ball.
Lütfi Cenet missed four times for his 50th point, his first was a miscue, then he missed a few difficult positions with just a little chance to score. The relief therefore was great when he could finish in the 30th inning in his first encounter with Merckx.
,,I have a lot of admiration for him and for everything he has won,'' said Cenet in the interview he gave to Kozoom. ,,Eddy Merckx is a wonderful player, so I'm very happy that I could win.''
The Turk arrived in a great shape in the Agipi Masters. ,,I have won a few tournaments in my country,'' he said. And to indicate how he felt before his departure for Schiltigheim: ,,In training, I made fifty points in four innings.''
His start, nevertheless, was not encouraging at all: Merckx led 12-4 after ten innings and then ran further out with 7, 6 and 6. Cenet started scoring after the twelfth inning and stayed with 7, 8 and 8 closely near his opponent.
Merckx reacted very disappointed after the match: ,,I had earned at least to equal the match, but I missed my last show by incredible bad luck.''
Dion Nelin surprised with a comfortable win over Jérémy Bury in this first round. The Dane, who announced a few hours before his game that he wants to stop playing in the Netherlands and Belgim (because I want to be back in normal life'') kept Bury virtually the entire match in his grip.
It was not that high class, which they showed the audience, but Nelin was definitely the best. He could have finished after 29 innings, but needed another six innings for his last three points.
Jérémy Bury had the same poor start as the evening before, in a league match against Jérôme Barbeillon, but Nelin gave him no chance to battle back with a spectacular endrush.
Martin Horn is the fifth player in this group.