COURBEVOIE - Cédric Melnytschenko is the winner of the 2nd French Grand Prix played in Courbevoie this weekend. In the final, the French player defeated local hero Hector Echeverry Marin 40-31 in 27 innings (1,481), mainly thanks to a run of 10. The Albertin player finished 1,310 overall in the tournament in which in an earlier phase Jérémy Bury, Gwendal Maréchal and Pierre Soumagne were eliminated.
The tournament winner defeated Jean-Luc Miller with 1,129, Jérémy Bury with 1,458, Mikaël Devogelaere with 1,379 in the quarter-finals and Thierry Roxo with 1,176 in the semi-finals. It was Melnytschenko's 5th final, his 2nd win in a national tournament after Cestas in 2017.
The Académie de Billard de Courbevoie-La Défense had two of its home players on the podium with Hector Echeverry Marin (1,167) and the Colmar-based Maxime Panaia (best average of the tournament with 1,349).
It was the first final played by Echeverry Marin and his second place on the podium. For Panaia, it was the 2nd final after his victory in Lunel 2018. Also in 3rd place, like Maxime Panaia, was Thierry Roxo (1,086), who had not been seen on the circuit since 2019.
The losers of the quarter-finals were Vahit Kunt (1,264) who only lost in extra time to his teammate Echeverry Marin after a 40-40 draw in 35 innings. Furthermore Marc Boingnères lost in those quarter-finals (0,959), Mikaël Devogelaere (1,083) and Abdelghani Refassi (1,044), who came from the qualifications and was winner of the group with Gwendal Maréchal. Refassi also realized the best match of the tournament with 35 points in 16 innings, 2,187 average, against Nathan Duriez.
Dominique Janvier (Nantes), who finished 24th, was the player who eliminated Pierre Soumagne in the preliminaries. The best run came from Frédéric Roelants with 11.
It was a remarkable tournament for the top players in French three cushion. The French players who average over 1,150 over a whole year can be counted on the fingers of two hands: Jérémy Bury, Gwendal Maréchal, Jérôme Barbeillon, Cédric Melnytschenko, Pierre Soumagne, Mikaël Devogelaere, Richard Bitalis, Jean-Christophe Roux and Francis Connesson. Five of them took part this weekend, only two were present in the quarter-finals, one in the semi-finals.
That means, Courbevoie 2022 was merciless for the favourites: Jérémy Bury, Gwendal Maréchal, who was unbeaten with 3 match points (equalizer for 4 against Refassi), but was not allowed to reach Sunday's matches. Jérémy Bury was eliminated by loss against Cédric Melnytschenko with 35-27 in 24.
Start of the final match with Cédric Melnytschenko (left) and Hector Echeverrin Marin