A BAULE - With his victory in the World Cup in La Baule, German Martin Horn is back on track. The thrilling fight back brought lots of emotions to his face after Horn powered to victory in the final against Korean Jae-Ho Cho (40-39 in 23) in the French seaside resort, where he climbed on the highest podium. The come-back player in the circuit, after years of absence in the World Cups, achieved one of the most remarkable successes of the last years. 47-year-old Horn was not among the seeded players with his low ranking and had to survive two days of pre-rounds and was the best of the entire world this Sunday afternoon. It was Horn's second victory in a World Cup after his first in Antalya in 2009 where he was the best on stage with Dick Jaspers, Frédéric Caudron and Torbjörn Blomdahl.
How nice was it to see the winner singing along with all his emotions the German anthem at the end. The victories in the last knock-out stages over Marco Zanetti, Frédéric Caudron and Jae-Ho Cho, three players from the world's top five, and earlier victories over Jung-Han Heo and Torbjörn Blomdahl gave the success a special shine. With the 80 points that Horn earned, he climbed from the 46th to 23rd place in the rankings. The president of the world federation, Mr. Farouk Barki, honoured the winner afterwards with a sincere: 'Welcome back, Martin Horn.'
Horn and Cho went straight into the final until the 20-18 lead for Cho in the 15th inning and 33-31 in the 21st inning. The Korean was the first to get the finish in sight at 36-34 in 22, but in the next inning, Horn ran out to the finish with his final sprint of 6. Cho scored three points in the equalizer and missed the last point, a difficult bank shot.
Martin Horn said in his first comment: ,,I still can't believe what happened. I have been in a tunnel during the three days of the final rounds. The circumstances on the final day were not easy. It was cold in the game room, the tables were short and difficult. But luckily, I was able to adapt well. '' And in his review: ,,I rate this win higher than the victory in Antalya in 2009. At that time, there were only few strong Koreans and no Vietnamese at all. The performance then was not comparable to that of today.''
His next mission: ,,I am now concentrating completely on the German championship in Bad Wildungen, where I want to take the title. That's why I'm not going to the World Cup in South Korea. I am completely preparing for the German title fight.''
The La Baule World Cup goes down in history as the tournament in which Semih Sayginer and Dick Jaspers played the best match ever last Saturday in the quarter finals. The Turkish magician established a new record for a World Cup match with 40 in 6 innings. The final score Sayginer-Jaspers, 40-25, meant for the two players the best combined average ever: 6.666 for Sayginer and 4.166 for Jaspers give a total average of 5.417.
Frédéric Caudron remains the number one in the world rankings with 448 points ahead of Dick Jaspers with 398. Semih Sayginer is the new number three with 276 followed by Marco Zanetti and Eddy Merckx with 268. Jae-Ho Cho rises after his place in the final from the 14th to 6th place with 262 points.
Semi-finals reports:
Martin Horn-Frédéric Caudron 40-34 in 25
Caudron's rarely seen breakdown, after his flawless start, made the match turning the other way after the stop. The German come-back after being 21-10 down in six innings was marked by small runs of 5, 4 and 4, when Horn gratefully used the poor finish of his opponent. Caudron led 25-10 in 8, from then the Belgian was no shadow of the player he was in the tournament before. From the eighth inning, Caudron produced eleven misses and five times one in sixteen innings. When Horn had finished the match at 40-34 in 25, Caudron scored four times from the spots with a fantastic second carom (a force-follow with counter-effect), for a final 40-25. Martin Horn finished 1-4-4-2 and showed his joy for reaching the final.
Jae-Ho Cho-Semih Sayginer 40-26 in 22
What a world of difference, was Semih Sayginer on Saturday and the Semih on Sunday. The level in the world match against Jaspers was in strong contrast to Sayginer's performance in the semi-final against Jae-Ho Cho. The magic was gone, and at the table we saw a player in a fight against himself, from the start running behind his opponent. The Korean was rock solid, never in danger and feeling Sayginer was close behind. At 10-10 in 9, the party match still could go two ways. Jae-Ho Cho then ran ahead from the sixth inning to 29-12 in 15. The Saturday stuntman had no answer, the Korean bird had flown and won the match 40-26 in 21.
Six players finished in the final ranking over two average: Martin Horn 2.020, Frédéric Caudron 2.053, Dick Jaspers 2.282, Jérémy Bury 2.172, Tayfun Tasdemir 2.121 and Nikos Polychronopoulos 2.454. Frédéric Caudron recorded the best run, 18, four players, including the young French talent Gwendal Maréchal shone with runs of 15: Dinh Nai Ngo, Hyung-Kon Kim, Gwendal Maréchl and Sung-Uk Oh.
Joel Switala, the French organizer, looked back with satisfaction at the three World Cups in three years in La Baule and was praised by the CEB delegate: 'Merci Joel, merci La Baule, vive le billard.'
The final ranking at La Baule's World Cup:
1 Martin Horn 10-2.020-13
2 Jae-Ho Cho 8-1.970-11
3 Frédéric Caudron 6-2.053-18
3 Semih Sayginer 6-1.921-12
5 Dick Jaspers 4-2.282-12
6 Minh Cam Ma 4-1.919-9
7 Marco Zanetti 4-1.864-12
8 Dani Sánchez 4-1.830-11
9 Jérémy Bury 2-2.172-11
10 Tayfun Tasdemir 2-2.121-9
11 Jung-Han Heo 2-1.921-9
12 Murat Naci Coklu 2-1.809-11
13 Dinh Nai Ngo 2-1.666-15
14 Quyet Chien Tran 2-1.543-6
15 Dion Nelin 2-1.512-11
16 Birol Uymaz 2-1.428-11
17 Nikos Polychronopoulos 0-2.454-14
18 Hyung Kon Kim 0-1.600-15
19 Gwendal Maréchal 0-1.578-15
20 Nguyen Quoc Nguyen 0-1.533-4
21 Robinson Morales 0-1.500-9
22 Sung-Won Choi 0-1.384-6
23 Lütfi Cenet 0-1.333-8
24 Torbjörn Blomdahl 0-1.285-5
The new world ranking:
1 Frédéric Caudron 448 (1)
2 Dick Jaspers 398 (2)
3 Semih Sayginer 276 (7)
4 Marco Zanetti 268 (5)
4 Eddy Merckx 268 (4)
6 Jae-Ho Cho 262 (14)
7 Quyet Chien Tran 254 (8)
8 Murat Naci Coklu 238 (11)
9 HaengJik Kim 232 (3)
10 Sameh Sidhom 224 (10)
11 Jung-Han Heo 224 (6)
12 Sung-Won Choi 216 (13)
13 Torbjörn Blomdahl 210 (12)
14 Tayfun Tasdemir 206 (15)
15 Jérémy Bury 199 (16)
16 Nguyen Quoc Nguyen 195 (9)
17 Dinh Nai Ngo 188 (18)
18 Dani Sánchez 184 (17)
19 Eddy Leppens 155 (19)
20 Nikos Polychronopoulos 154 (20)
21 Dong-Koong Kang 141 (21)
22 Minh Cam Ma 137 (25)
23 Martin Horn 135 (46)
24 Myung Woo Cho 128 (23)
25 Tonny Carlsen 127 (24)
Martin Horn, back in business after World Cup victory
Martin Horn, approaching his World Cup victory.
Jae-Ho Cho from Korea, just one point down to win the final match
Semih Sayginer and Dick Jaspers after their record match in the quarters: 40-25 in 6