SEOUL/INCHEON - The man heading one of the flights in the field of eight finalists at the Survival 3C Masters never won a World Cup or another important event. The 30-year-old Vietnamese Dinh Nai Ngo is knocking softly on the door of the global three-cushion world and is facing a bunch of great champions on the final day. The world's top three has a shot at the win, five of the eight are Europeans, the other three Asians with a glorious role for the young man Myung-Woo Cho.
Dinh Nai Ngo topped the group in which this little Korean played a final as a routined champion and showed a rush in which he, in his last inning, knocked out Murat Naci Coklu with a run of eight. It was the most exciting flight without impressive scores, but with the best averages. Vietnamese Ngo was the winner with 79, 2.461 and ten as his best run, followed by Myung-Woo Cho (75, 2.384, 8), Murat Naci Coklu (51, 1.923, 7) and Hyung Kon Kim (35, 1.615.7). But what a final in this group: Coklu was the number two in the dying minutes with 59 points ahead of Cho with 51. Then, the Korean opened the door to the semi-finals in his last chance with a flawless run of 8.
Two other groups lacked as much tension because Eddy Merckx and Dick Jaspers didn't get the expected opposition from Dong-Koong Kang and Semih Sayginer. Marco Zanetti ran out to the best score with Dani Sánchez in his shadow. Merckx, who gave his future to the UMB these days, played solidly and was the best with 85 points ahead of Jaspers with 65, averaging 2.071 and 1.714. Marco Zanetti already led with 60 points in his group at the stop and increased it to 109 with an average of 2.571 (best of the day), second was Sánchez with 73 points and 1.928, followed by Choi with 1.214 and Cenet with 1.071.
The last session turned into a big win for Jae-Ho Cho, who chased Caudron and Polychronopoulos in the first part, but then attacked with a run of eight. The Korean maintained his leading position. Polychronopoulos faced two open chances to pass Caudron in the final part, but missed in the crucial phase. Jae-Ho Cho finished with 93 points and 2.187, Frédéric Caudron with 69 and 1.812, Polychronopoulos and Nguyen were eliminated both with 57 points, 1.652 for Nikos, 1.062 for Quoc.
The semi-finals for Sunday:
5:00pm (Korean time):
Marco Zanetti
Dinh Nai Ngo
Myung-Woo Cho
Dick Jaspers
7:00pm
Jae-Ho Cho
Eddy Merckx
Dani Sánchez
Frédéric Caudron.
Marco Zanetti, the best average ahead of Dani Sánchez
Dani Sánchez took second place in his group
Jae-Ho Cho, strong in the second chance matches, winner in his flight with Caudron
Frédéric Caudron, second in the race with Polychronopoulos
Dinh Nai Ngo, the man without wins, one of the eight final players
Dick Jaspers finished in the shadow of Merckx
Eddy Merckx gave his future to UMB today and won his group with Jaspers