HURGHADA - The only highlight in Mohsen Fouda's career so far was a victory over Torbjörn Blomdahl at the European championship in 2007. But, at the World Cup in Hurghada, today, the 63-year-old Egyptian engineer was the sensation of first rounds. The audience in the stands awarded the long veteran with a standing ovation after his win against Eddy Merckx, one of the best in the world. "I felt tears of happiness coming up'', Fouda said half an hour after the fantastic match, which ended in 40-29 after his 16-run in the second last inning. Jérémy Bury excelled later with a run of 18, missing one point before the finish.
The Cairo-based Mohsen Fouda, father of three children, played the match of his life in front of his own audience. "I didn't feel any tension during my high run. I was totally relaxed'', he commented to the world referee Bilo Salama, who translated it into English. What was his secret during the match? Mohsen: ,,Concentration and a little luck.'' The last carom, for example, was a lucky shot, but the the player and the spectators didn't care at all. ,,There was great applause and not only from the Egyptians.''
Mohsen Fouda started his billiard career in 1970 at the Rivoli Club in Cairo. First in one cushion, later he switched to three-cushion. In all those years, he played about 20 World Cup tournaments. This time, Mohsen received a wildcard as the number two of the Egyptian rankings following the nr. 1 Sameh Sidhom. That allowed Mohsen to participate at the World championship in October in Cairo. The match against Eddy Merckx seemed to turn out all the way into a logical victory of the Belgian with scores of 20-10, 23-12 and 28-20 in the eighteenth inning. But then, at a totally unexpected moment, Mohnsen stepped up to the table for a glorious highlight. The blistering run of sixteen, in front of an exciting crowd, brought him on a 36-28 lead, in the next inning, ran out with four, 40-29.
The next amazing final rush came from Marco Zanetti in his match against Tayfun Tasdemir. Five innings before the end, the Turk led 34-27. Zanetti then launched his attack with runs of 11 and 5 and won the match 40-37 in 19. Nguyen Quoc Nguyen was a way too strong for Birol Uymaz in the same session (10-1 after 2, 40-18 in 19), Frédéric Caudron and Juan David Zapata both scored an 11, the Belgian was the best at the finish 40-30 in 20.
Jérémy Bury produced another miraculous run when he showed a master piece in the penultimate session of the day. Far down to Quyet Chien Tran (33-21), the Frenchman attacked with a run that almost brought him to the finish, 18. His first match point, a bank shot, missed by a hair after an unlucky kiss. In the next inning, Bury reached the finish line with cheers from the stands: 40-34 in 18. It was in the round in which Dani Sánchez, the Wednesday star, disappeared from the scene and had to give up his attempt to improve his ranking position. Colombian Huberney Cataño pulled the trigger at a 40-34 score in 30 innings.
Jérémy Bury with a magnificent run of 18
Myung-Woo Cho left the tournament after his heroic act (run 22). Just one day later he was eliminated with a loss against Adnan Yüksel. In the final phase, with many misses for both players, the Korean had unexpected chances, but he could not use them. Yüksel, in his best days a dreaded opponent, won 40-36 in 23.
Semih Sayginer broke the opposition of Filippos Kasidokostas at the end of the match, when he finished 12-2-4 in the last three innings: 40-31 in 18. Murat Naci Coklu was the better of Nikos Polychronopoulos, who led 19-8, but ran into the Turk in the last part: 40-26 in 14. Roland Forthomme put Sung-Won Choi on the rack with a comfortable 40-20 win in 16 innings.
Haeng-Jik Kim showed a bit of the form that brought him to the world top for a few years. In his match against his compatriot, Seung-Jin Lee, Kim led 19-1 in six and finally won 40-18 in 16. Dick Jaspers had to start a pursuit after Lütfi Cenet's better start (17-5 after 3). Jaspers used his traditional strong final, running 6 to the finish: 40-29 in 19. Jae-Ho Cho took the win with a 3-run when he was 39-37 down against Oh, Dion Nelin and Jung-Han Heo were in balance for a long time (10-10, 24-24), in the last phase, Nelin struck and won 40-36 in 22.
The matches in the last sixteen, on Friday:
11.00: Egyptian time
Caudron-Nguyen
Blomdahl-Zanetti
Coklu-Sayginer
Forthomme-Fouda
13.00:
HJ Kim-Yüksel
Bury-Cataño
Nelin-JH Cho
Jaspers-Sidhom.
Mohsen Fouda, during his amazing run of 16 to beat Eddy Merckx
Jae-Ho Cho knocked out his countryman William Oh.
Dick Jaspers had the best finish to survive a backlog against Cenet