3-Cushion
SCHILTIGHEIM - With two great points, after a match in which he constantly had a large adventage, Pierre Soumagne finished his match in the first session of the Agipi Masters with a victory over his countryman Thierry Amar. The 23-year-old Frenchman, from Soissons in Picardy, decided the match with two difficult cushion first points. ,,It is not my specialty, but I played them perfectly now'', he said. The French collision ended in 40-31 in 32 innings.
Pierre Soumagne as a young player has a palmares with ten European and sixteen French titles in the serie disciplines. The progress that he made in two years in three cushion, he showed on the opening day in Schiltigheim. The tension was tangible in the match, especially in the performance of Thierry Amar. The score after ten innings was 18-11, Soumagne then took more adventage with 31-21 and 37-28 in 31 innings. He finished with three in the 32nd inning.
Glenn Hofman on the other billiard with regular, small runs impressed his opponent Sameh Sidhom so much, that the Dutchman could run out in a short time to adventages of 15-6 and even 29-9 in 21 innings. The Egyptian had a total offday, he only made one point in the fifteen innings before the finish of Hofman.
"Never the less I was quite nervous'', Hofman told later, ,,because I knew this was the most important match in the group. If I would defeat Sidhom, I would be with one foot in the next round. I did'nt only think of scoring, but the whole match also on defense.'' The result was that Hofman reached the finish after 26 innings. Sidhom (after a run of six in the equalizing inning) only collected 16 points (40-16 in 26 ).
Tomorrow Soumagne plays against Sidhom, Hofman against Amar.