NICE - Filipos Kasidokostas has won the 18th and final Crystal Kelly tournament in Nice with a mighty and unbelievable endrush. The 28-year-old Greek, who participated last year for the first time and then ended up as the penultimate, showed how he has been growing to the top twelve months: he defeated Marco Zanetti, the winner of last year, in the final: 50-38.
The Greek will be remembered in the history of Crystal Kelly as the player with an incredibly high percentage of caroms. In his six matches Kasidokostas missed only one carom: in his group match against Marco Zanetti, when he wasted a big lead and lost 50-49. Frédéric Caudron and Kasidokostas played a draw against each other in the group (50-50).
The second chance, which Kasidokostas got in the final against Zanetti got, was a beautiful revenge. The Greek dominated from the start to the end. The Italian was barely in the match, he couldn't produce big runs. Only on a score of 46-19 behind, Zanetti scored a run of eleven in the closing innings. Due to the big difference between both players, the final actually was a one-sided duel with Kasidokostas as the one and only winner.
Dick Jaspers had to work hard for the third place, because of a strong playing opponent in this duel with Torbjörn Blomdahl. The Swede, five-times winner of the tournament, passed Jaspers on a score of 29-20 with a run of fifteen. Jaspers and Blomdahl kept the balance until 39-39, then Blomdahl made four, but on 45-44 Jaspers finished with six with a little luck on his side. The match lasted only sixteen innings.
In the duel for the fifth place, Semih Sayginer defeated Frédéric Caudron. The Turk took over the lead after a good start of Caudron, took the initiative and dominated the battle. Sayginer finished with a run of nine on a comfortable score: 50-33 in 25 innings.