SCHILTIGHEIM - The older champion finished the day with a smile, the other with a dark look. Marco Zanetti marked his first day in the Agipi round with two main steps towards the final round. Filippos Kasidokostas is close to elimination.
In the second session of Group A, Zanetti disturbed Kasidokostas' dream in the Agipi arena. The Greek needs a mirracle to pass this qualification.
Marco Zanetti have to take two major hurdles, but made the best impression on day one of all players that came on the tables. He won twice with a great average: against Jean Christophe Roux with 50-29 in 18 innings, in the evening against Kasidokostas with 50-43 in 23 innings.
For the second game he needed a tough attack. Very early in the match Zanetti passed the time frame, had to go to his chair and saw Kasidokostas answer from the break off witheleven (16-7). The recovery of the Italian was alreay there in the eleventh inning (seven run) and some innings later with a breakaway of twelve in the fifteenth, followed by two, six and five (score 45-33).
It was the decision in the match, although Filippos Kasidokostas was fighting for his last chance: he could not close the gap. Zanetti finished at 49-43 with a great bankshot.
Torbjörn Blomdahl didn't show up with a grandiose start in his match against Jean Christophe Roux (19-11 behind, 22-15 backlog), but when the Swede started to score with 4, 3, 5 and 2, the score was already in balance at 29-28 .
The victory was no longer in danger, because Blomdahl ran out with eighteen points in five innings, without making high runs. And only in the equalizer, Roux could make his highest run with seven.
Zanetti leads the table after two matches with four match points and an excellent average of 2.438. Blomdahl and Tasdemir follow with two match points out of one game.