LISBON - The Portuguese individual three cushion championship was won by Rui Costa for the third time in a row and for the sixth time in total. The 56-year-old player, belonging to the strong FC Porto team, took the title in a tournament with a round robin system, in which he ended ahead of his 22-year-old teammate Joao Ferreira. The championship, with eight participants, was played in the billiard room of Sporting Clube de Portugal in Lisbon.
Rui Costa and Joao Ferreira closed the title race with equal match points. The average decided on the title: Rui Costa finished with 19 points and an excellent 1.466, Joao Ferreira with 19 points and 1.316. Before they faced each others, Rui Costa was the champion already. He won all his matches until then. Joao Ferreira lost against José Correia on Saturday 50-46 in 50 innings. In the mutual match, Ferreira was the strongest. He defeated Rui Costa 50-45 in 40.
The champion Rui Costa played his best match against Joao Silva, 50-23 in 25 innings. In the other matches he won, he finished in 34, 34, 30, 28 and 45 innings. Joao Ferreira defeated Joao Silva 50-17 in 21 innings and Rui Palhares in 23 innings. Paulo Andrade impressed in a great performance to finish third behind the two frontrunners.
The champion, Rui Costa, is married to Fernanda Costa, they have a son, Joao. He plays billiards since his eighteenth year, is responsible for the FC Porto Billiard School and is working as a salesman in the billiard industry. Rui Costa has many sports in which he is interested, including football, basketball and handball. His idol as a world class player is Dani Sánchez: ,,I love his game, his style and he helps me to improve my game. But also Torbjörn Blomdahl always helps us when we practice with our team. Dick Jaspers, Semih Saygıner and Fred Caudron are other favorite players.''
The final results of the Portuguese championship (with points and average):
1 Rui Costa 19-1.466
2 Joao Ferreira 19-1.316
3 Paulo Andrade 17-1.110
4 José Correia 15-0.947
5 Fernando Cunha 13-0.881
6 Luis Santos 13-0.831
7 Joao Silva 9-0.841
8 Rui Palhares 7-0.769.
Rui Costa, for the third time in a row the best in Portugal