3-Cushion
HURGHADA - Two players from the world's top twelve are in the last four, the last two Belgians and the last two Turks are out for the tournament. The numbers one to seven from the ranking were sent home, the ranking is turned upside down. The World Cup in Hurghada is waiting a climax on Saterday with two unexpected Koreans (Dong Koong Kang and Hyung Bum Hwang), the surprising Spaniard Javier Palazón and the old soldier in the field, Marco Zanetti.
The sensation could not be bigger: after Sung-Won Choi, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Frédéric Caudron, Dick Jaspers and Jae Ho Cho, in the leading up to the final day also the new number one in the world, Eddy Merckx, was left behind by the 31-year-old Korean Hyung Bum Hwang: 40-29 in 23.
There was even more in this round with the top eight players of the tournament. The other finalist of last year, Tayfun Tasdemir, was put on the ranck by Marco Zanetti (40-29 in 22), Adnan Yuksel was overpowered by Dong Koong Kang (40-29 in 23) and the Spanish toreador Javier Palazón keeps on pleasing the arena, making an end this time to the mission of the brave Belgian Eddy Leppens (40-22 in 19).
Frédéric Caudron secured, by the elimination of all his competitors, the victory in the World Cup cycle, what means that he shows up at the Super Gala in Antwerp as the opponent for the world champion Sung-Won Choi.
The scoreboard at the end of two days in Hurghada showed how whimsical the World Cups have become after the matches have been reduced from 50 to 40 points. The level keeps growing, matches of two average and are more often than not. Therefore all the top of the world rankings have become vulnerable.
Look at Eddy Leppens: the best player of the last days, had a poor start against Javier Palazón and was facing a deficit of 38-10 after 15 innings. He could make his farewell a little bit nicer with a run of ten at the end.
And look at Hyung Bum Hwang, who hasn't even won one tournament in his country. He matched up with Eddy Merckx to 20-19 for Merckx. Then, everyone in the public expected that the Belgian, as in the previous round against Dani Sánchez, would use his famous final sprint to win. But none of that: Merckx stopped scoring and Hwang was the better finisher.
Marco Zanetti, who celebrabted the absolute highlights in his career last year, remained upright. The Italian was 20-19 down against Tayfun Tasdemir halfway, but attacked a few innings later with nine and pulled the trigger.
The semi-finals for tomorrow:
11.00: Dong Koong Kang-Javier Palazón
13:00: Marco Zanetti-Hyung Bum Hwang.
16.00: Final.