3-Cushion
HURGHADA - The fantastic honor roll of the Italian maestro Marco Zanetti is finally enriched with a new World Cup victory. The 52-year-old reigning European champion was the best on the final day of the World Cup in Hurghada in his battle with two Korean fighters. He defeated both of them on the banks of the Red Sea. The final victory was the reward for a demonstration of world class, character and temperament in two matches on the last day.
Marco Zanetti's last World Cup win dates from fifteen years ago when he defeated Martin Horn in Berlin. ,,That was the last World Cup in the era of Werner Bayer'', Zanetti said after the ceremony. The Italian won previously only at Palma de Mallorca in 1990, but unbelievably had to wait many years for another triumph.
The winner of this year's last World Cup could escape in the semi-finals from the tight grip of new Korean star Hyung Bum Hwang (40-39) in a trench war math, but then crowned his wonderful tournament in the final against Dong Koong Kang, the last Korean who was left from nine players in the main tournament. That match was decided by Zanetti's run of ten shortly after the break, which gave him a 37-16 lead in fourteen innings. Therefor he paved the way to his final victory (40-23 in 17 innings).
The Italian controlled the match by his enormous routine in playing finals. ,,I felt the pressure, of course, but I could gradually set the pace of the match. My opponent couldn't find his rhythm when he was down after the break. That was different in the semi-finals, in which I could only win by a lucky finish.''
,,I was 38-32 down after Hyung Bum Hwang attacked close to the end. He had three or four opportunities for the win, but he could not finish it off. I was a lucky winner in that match. The final was another match, because I dominated after the high run and made the gap for a solid win.''
Dong Koong Kang had sealed victory in the other semi-final against Javier Palazón, who made his come-back as a professional player with a stunning performance. The adventure ended the Spaniard in the semi-finals, where he was two caroms down at the finish against Kang: 40-38 in 26.
Marco Zanetti is back on cloud nine after his glorious and incredible year of 2013, in which he became European champion, won the Agipi Masters the Lausanne Masters and the World Games. He was exhausted, he told in Lausanne a few weeks ago, where he arrived after a tour in Colombia for his sponsor Longoni.
The ambitions were not too high after the great achievements, the Italian complained about his eyes that are getting a little less and about his physical condition, but he won Lausanne against all odds and launched himself even as one of the contenders in Hurghada. The Greek Papakonstantinou was the first victim of his scoring, (40-33 of 21), the Belgian Roland Forthomme was coolly knocked down 40-30 in twenty innings and Tayfun Tasdemir, one of the other stars in the tournament, on the way to the final day with 40-29 in 21 innings.
Korean player Dong Koong Kang was beaten by Marco Zanetti in the final match.
It was the leading up to a final day on which Zanetti was the only player who could stop the Korean armada. ,,And it's good for me to add another nice win to my honor role'', he said, beaming. ,,I am already over fifty now, so there's not so much time left to win titles and tournaments.''
The final tournament was at the start colored by the Koreans and the Turks and was later marked by the early elimination of favorites like Torbjörn Blomdahl, Frédéric Caudron, Sung-Won Choi, Eddy Merckx and Dick Jaspers.
At the end of the last World Cup not only Marco Zanetti was honored: also Frédéric Caudron was rewarded for a tremendous year in which he won the World Cup in Luxor, was second was the Guri World Cup and finally gathered the most points in the World Cup cycle. That gives the Belgians the right to play the Super Cup in Antwerp next year, where he will meet Sung-Won Choi, the world champion, as his opponent.
The winner of the World Cup in Hurghada on the podium with the other finalists and overall World Cup winner Frédéric Caudron.
The final ranking in Hurghada:
1 Marco Zanetti, 1.834-10
2 Dong Koong Kang, 1.867-11
3 Hyung Bum Hwang, 1.915-10
Javier Palazón, 1.816-11
5 Adnan Yüksel, 1.810-11
6 Eddy Merckx, 1.493-11
7 Tayfun Tasdemir, 1.453-9
8 Eddy Leppens, 1.436-10
9 Dani Sánchez, 1.969-16
10 Torbjörn Blomdahl, 1.950-13
11 Murat Naci Coklu, 1.767-8
12 Frédéric Caudron, 1.729-8
13 Roland Forthomme, 1.590-8
14 Sung-Won Choi, 1.391-6
15 Kyung-Roul Kim, 1.311-6.
The new world ranking after the World Cup in Hurghada, which will change on 1 Januari 2015:
1 Torbjörn Blomdahl, 411
2 Frédéric Caudron, 379
3 Sung-Won Choi, 373
4 Eddy Merckx, 349
5 Marco Zanetti, 302
6 Dick Jaspers, 260
7 Jae Ho Cho, 250
8 Tayfun Tasdemir, 243
9 Kyung-Roul Kim, 240
10 Dong Koong Kang, 221
11 Filipos Kasidokostas, 208
12 Quyet Chien Tran, 189
13 Jean Paul de Bruijn, 180
14 Roland Forthomme, 173
15 Dani Sánchez, 170
16 Choong-Bok Lee, 158
17 Jérémy Bury, 146
18 Murat Naci Coklu, 143
19 Nikos Polychronopoulos, 139
20 Eddy Leppens, 138.