BLANKENBERGE - The final score after a marathon of 32 matches showed an incredible high level on the late Friday evening. The World Cup in Blankenberge, between the sessions interrupted by flashing spotlights in the casino arena, went to the final round with sixteen players, eight of whom finished with an average over two, five players with a maximum of six match points and Dick Jaspers (4 match points, 2,878) who scored the best average of 32. Quyet Chien Tran, the Vietnamese who shone early on the day with a run of 18, was sacrificed on match points in the last day session by Jérémy Bury. The result was that the evening was successfully concluded by Peter De Backer, the hero in his homeland, who survived all rounds from Monday in a rush of triumphs. And tomorrow, Saturday, is one of the best sixteen on the world stage.
Many famous players from the world ranking survived the the wear and tear battle, in which 32 players in eight groups of four competed for sixteen places. HaengJik Kim, Frédéric Caudron, Javier Palazón, Sung-Won Choi and Marco Zanetti won all their three matches. Dani Sánchez took two wins and a draw, Martin Horn finished group winner with four match points. Quyet Chien Tran, Eddy Merckx, Tayfun Tasdemir, Jae-Ho Cho, Nikos Polychronopoulos, Jérémy Bury and Myung-Woo Cho were the best known to leave the scene after this first day of the main draw.
The living proof of the high level today:
The overall average of the 8 numbers 1: 1.997
The overall average of the 8 numbers two: 1.824
The overall average of the 8 numbers 3: 1.700
The overall average of the 8 numbers 4: 1.615
(With all credits to the perfect Gabriels tables)
HaengJik Kim showed his best form in the group in which he defeated Dick Jaspers 40-38 in 15, Adnan Yüksel forfeited his chances in his match against Kim in 12 innings and Robinson Morales, with no match points at the bottom, finished 1.764 of average.
Frédéric Caudron started with a win over his countryman Eddy Leppens (40-31 in 21) after a decisive run of 12 in the final part. Chang Hoon Seo was the surprising number two on average in the group which ended with three players on two points.
Javier Palazón, who joined the main tournament as a runner-up, was very strong and remained unbeaten in his matches against Roland Forthomme, Dinh Nai Ngo and Jae-Ho Cho. Forthomme survived a mighty counterattack by Dinh Nai Ngo, who needed nine scores from the spots and missed in his last point due to a miscue. Jae-Ho Cho, the contender number 1 in the group, lost his three matches.
Martin Horn shone in two won matches in 15 innings and only lost to Semih Sayginer 40-30 in 22. The Turk had a famous start of the day against Myung-Woo Cho with 20-8 (run 16) in two innings. The match, nevertheless, was finally the last to finish in the earliest session, 40-35 in 23. The young guy Cho finished third with two points in the slipstream of Horn and Sayginer.
Dani Sánchez was forced to a draw in the best match of his group by Minh Cam Ma. The Spaniard finished on top with five points and exactly 2,000, the Vietnamese, as fourth and last with 1,901. Jung-Han Heo started with a loss against Sanchez and then first defeated Minh Cam Ma, followed by Tayfun Tasdemir, both in 19 innings.
Torbjörn Blomdahl ran into a magical Quyet Chien Tran in his first match, in which the Vietnamese launched his attack with 18 points in the third inning. That start eventually brought Tran a 40-17 score in 14. Blomdahl recovered well and then won his matches against Jérémy Bury and Peter De Backer. The Belgian triumphed against Bury (40-31 in 27) and Tran (40-31 in 31), was only defeated by Blomdahl 40-25 in 18 and at the end passed Tran on the runner-up position. Bury, already eliminated, saved De Backer from the elimination: the Frenchman finished his match with Tran, who's equalizer was not good enough: 1 Blomdahl, 2 De Backer.
Marco Zanetti was sovereign in the group in which Murat Naci Coklu was the runner-up. The mutual clash was won by Zanetti 40-33 in 12 innings, one of the best matches of the day. The Italian later also beat Thomas Andersen in 17 and Gwendal Maréchal in 22 innings. Coklu went on as second by a win over Maréchal 40-25 in 16.
Sung-Won Choi and Lütfi Cenet delivered the verdict in the battle with Eddy Merckx. The Korean was the group winner with 6 points, Cenet the number two with 4 points. Eddy Merckx only beat Nguyen Quoc Nguyen and missed the final sixteen as one of the home crowd's favourites.
The best matches came to the name of Dick Jaspers against Morales (10 innings), HaengJik Kim against Yüksel and Marco Zanetti against Coklu, both in 12 innings. Quyet Chien Tran scored the best run (18), Semih Sayginer made a 16, Martin Horn 15 and Dick Jaspers and Robinson Morales in the match against each other both a run of 14.
The schedule for Saturday in the last sixteen:
12.00:
HaengJik Kim-Chang Hoon Seo
Torbjörn Blomdahl-Dick Jaspers
Sung-Won Choi-Roland Forthomme
Javier Palazón-Lütfi Cenet
14.00:
Frédéric Caudron-Semih Sayginer
Dani Sánchez-Jung-Han Heo
Martin Horn-Murat Naci Coklu
Marco Zanetti-Peter De Backer.
The group rankings:
Poule A:
1 HaengJik Kim 6-2.448-12
2 Dick Jaspers 4-2.878-14
3 Adnan Yüksel 2-1.702-11
4 Robinson Morales 0-1.764-14
Poule B:
1 Frédéric Caudron 6-2.105-12
2 Chang-Hoon Seo 2-2.166-9
3 Nikos Polychronopoulos 2-1.978-8
4 Eddy Leppens 0-1.896-7
Poule C:
1 Javier Palazón 6-1.976-12
2 Roland Forthomme 4-1.594-10
3 Dinh Nai Ngo 2-1.493-9
4 Jae-Ho Cho 0-1.716-8
Poule D:
1 Martin Horn 4-2.115-15
2 Semih Sayginer 4-1.539-16
3 Myung-Woo Cho 2-1.842-11
4 Sameh Sidhom 2-1.750-8
Poule E:
1 Dani Sánchez 5-2.000-9
2 Jung-Han Heo 4-1.883-9
3 Tayfun Tasdemir 2-1.762-10
4 Minh Cam Ma 1-1.901-8
Poule F:
1 Torbjörn Blomdahl 4-1.539-8
2 Peter De Backer 4-1.381-8
3 Quyet Chien Tran 3-1.734-18
4 Jérémy Bury 1-1.311-9
Poule G:
1 Marco Zanetti 6-2.352-10
2 Murat Naci Coklu 4-2.260-7
3 Gwendal Maréchal 2-1.732-10
4 Thomas Andersen 0-1.438-6
Poule H:
1 Sung-Won Choi 6-1.690-7
2 Lütfi Cenet 4-1.575-10
3 Eddy Merckx 2-1.492-12
4 Nguyen Quoc Nguyen 0-1.380-6.
Dutchman Dick Jaspers, best on average on the first day
Peter De Backer, an incredible survival race in five days World Cup
Marco Zanetti watching the referee Paul Brekelmans before starting his match
Javier Palazón came in as one of the runners-up and made a wonderful start in the main draw
Colombian Robinson Morales, no points, but a great 1.764 and a 14 run against Jaspers
Torbjörn Blomdahl finished group winner followed by Peter De Backer
Dani Sánchez, group winner with two victories and a draw
Roland Forthomme, third Belgian in the field of sixteen
Lütfi Cenet, runner-up in the match topped by Sung-Won Choi
Tonny Carlsen, who waits a second brain surgery and Semih Sayginer's girlfriend Senay, walking with crutches after she fell down the stairs