SHARM EL SHEIKH - How bizarre it was to see the world champion falter against another top gun. Myung Woo Cho, the young Korean master, does not shy away from big names easily, but was put on the slaughter rack for some time in his match against Frédéric Caudron at the World Cup in Sharm El Sheikh this Thursday. Was it some kind of ingrained fear of the young grand master, respect for Caudron's reputation or just an off-day? This was also the day on this Thursday when Sameh Sidhom showed to be on fire in front of his own audience and Marco Zanetti, who won his last World Cup in 2019 in this same Sharm El Sheikh against Dick Jaspers, showed that he still belongs to the absolute top on the world stage. And also, that Peter Ceulemans touched the world top again.
Six players from the eight groups won their groups with the maximum 6 match points: Sameh Sidhom (2,448), Peter Ceulemans (1,967), Marco Zanetti (1,904), Dick Jaspers (1,818), Thanh Luc Tran (1,764) and Frédéric Caudron (1,621).
The schedule with the best 16 for Friday:
10.00 in the Netherlands and Belgium:
Sameh Sidhom-Quyet Chien Tran
Eddy Merckx-Tayfun Tasdemir
Thanh Luc Tran-Myung Woo Cho
Dick Jaspers-Hong Chiem Thai
12.30pm:
Marco Zanetti-Jérémy Bury
Frédéric Caudron-Glenn Hofman
Torbjörn Blomdahl-Jun Tae Kim
Peter Ceulemans-Berkay Karakurt
The end of the two-generation battle at Caudron against Cho could still somewhat blur reality. The Korean star player shook a magic ball from the cue ten caroms from the finish, still came dangerously close, but still lost in the end. For the two champions, 1.379 and 1.276 averages were recorded in a World Cup with much higher scores and on the day when Torbjörn Blomdahl, for example, won with 2.667 (40 in 15), Haeng Jik Kim and Nguyen Chi Long with 2. 500 (40 in 16), Dick Jaspers, Thanh Luc Tran, Tayfun Tasdemir, Sameh Sidhom, Jérémy Bury and Birol Uymaz won with the favorite game for many players on this day: 2,353 (40 in 17).
Sameh Sidhom, never winner of a World Cup in his career, demonstrated to his own audience, in the group with Tasdemir and Forthomme, to be on fire at this stage. The start was impressive against Forthomme (40-31 in 18), followed by the 40-28 in 17 against Tasdemir and finally against Korean Son 40-14 in 14, bringing the Egyptian amateur/dentist to an impressive score of 6 match points and 2.448 on average. Who will now be able to stop Sidhom from his first World Cup victory in his own homeland?
Marco Zanetti, who dropped to the dangerous number 14 position in the world rankings, had another day where he demonstrated he is still a fantastic billiard player. As one of the stars on this day of play, the Italian won first against Vietnamese Long by 2,000 average, then vs Glenn Hofman after a middle part with successive 6, 4, 8 and 8 with 2,222 on average and, against Heo, turned a wide margin into his third, more than deserved success.
Peter Ceulemans concluded his masterful performance on the late Egyptian evening with a third win. In the group with three feared Koreans, the Belgian was crowned hero of the day. Ceulemans beat all three of them by 6 match points and almost 2 average. Verily, also in this World Cup, Ceulemans's star is rising again with this great performance.
Eddy Merckx stood up after a lesser start (loss against Bao) when it was really needed, Phuong Vinh Bao continues to amaze with his great class, but also with incredible bad luck and Quyet Chien Tran, as the frontrunner in the World Cup cycle (equal to Dick Jaspers), balanced on the brink of collapse and elimination. But this Vietnamese, unlike Bao, eventually saved himself from elimination and is still in contention for the World Cup cycle.
The summaries of the eight pools.
Group A:
Dick Jaspers' smooth start against Mexican Javier Vera (40-20 in 17) already took away some of the tension for the top position. The two Vietnamese, Hong Chiem Thai and Duc Minh Tran (40-35 in 31) fought it out for second qualification. Jaspers squandered his high average against Thai (40-30 in 30), but remained superior in this group. Hong Chiem Thai moves up to the top 16.
The standings in Group A:
1 Dick Jaspers 6-1,717-10
2 Hong Chiem Thai 4-1,250-7
3 Duc Minh Tran 2-1,226-7
4 Javier Vera 0-1,057-7
Group B:
The top affair Caudron-Cho did not live up to the high expectations, but the Belgian was able to add that win against the Korean after his victory against Kamal (40-26 in 27) and finally also won vs Birol Uymaz. The six match points were crowned with an average of 1.621, strangely not with big runs of 10 or more. Myung Woo Cho was able to join Caudron by winning vs Kamal in the last session.
The final standings in Group B:
1 Frédéric Caudron 6-1,621-9
2 Myung Woo Cho 4-1.519-11
3 Birol Uymaz 2-1.629-11
4 Samer Kamal 0-0.938-6
Group C:
The start in Group C was sensational. Quyet Chien Tran, the world number one, started with two losses, first against Thanh Luc Tran (40-30 in 23) and later against Pierre Soumagne (40-33 in 22). The battle for the 2024 World Cup cycle, between Dick Jaspers and Quyet Chien Tran, already seemed a game won by Jaspers. The final session decided otherwise. Tran won vs Egyptian Ayman, came on 2 match points and was the best in average with 1.287.
The standings in Group C:
1 Thanh Luc Tran 6-1,764-13
2 Quyet Chien Tran 2-1287-10
3 Pierre Soumagne 2-1,130-6
4 Mahmoud Ayman 2-0,851-5
Group D:
Vietnam's new world top player since his sensational world title, Phuong Vinh Bao, shone before with 18 as a final run, but went down again in an unfortunate finish. That has happened to Bao before this season: in Veghel he was eliminated with the very best average of the 32 finalists. Eddy Merckx eventually became group winner ahead of Berkay Karakurt.
Phuong Vin Bao defeated Eddy Merckx 40-29 in 22 in the first session and played a draw against Berkay Karakurt 40-40 in 26, which kept him in the race, but losing against Tolgahan Kiraz in the third game, noted 40-39 in 27 innings, cost Bao qualification. Eddy Merckx was the deserved winner thanks to a win against Karakurt 40-29 in 22.
Standings in Group D:
1 Eddy Merckx 4-1,676-12
2 Berkay Karakurt 3-1,626-9
3 Phuong Vinh Bao 3-1,586-8
4 Tolgahan Kiraz 0-1.318-8
Group E:
Peter Ceulemans was the star in this group with three Koreans after only two rounds. The Belgian wants to continue his rise in the world rankings and also shone in this company. Haeng Jik Kim, not in his best form to say the least, was Ceulemans' first victim with 40-12 in 19. After that, Jun Tae Kim also was beaten 40-32 in 24. The next thing for Ceulemans was to remain unbeaten. He did so with a win over Ja In Kang, 40-23 in 18. The battle for second position ended in favour of Jun Tae Kim, who beat Haeng Jik Kim 40-33 in 23.
The standings in Group E:
1 Peter Ceulemans 6-1,967-11
2 Jun Tae Kim 4-1,623-8
3 Haeng Jik Kim 2-1,465-11
4 Ja In Kang 0-1,303-5
Group F:
The group with Martin Horn, Jérémy Bury, Torbjörn Blomdahl and Ruben Legazpi can easily be called the group of death. That is also how it turned out in the first-session matches, where Legazpi was eliminated first by losing against Blomdahl and Horn. Things got even more exciting as Horn equalized against Bury (40-40 in 22), which meant the German had to win Blomdahl to be certain. That turned out into a thriller that lingered for a long time. Horn and Blomdahl, but also Bury and Legazpi fought for the win until the very last part. Horn missed his last under big tension, after which Blomdahl finished with 2. The Swede grabbed the qualification. Jérémy Bury missed the equalizer against Legazpi (40-36), but did become the number 2 in the group at the expense of Horn.
The standings in Group F:
1 Torbjörn Blomdahl 4-1,777-14
2 Jérémy Bury 3-1.901-10
3 Martin Horn 3-1.322-11
4 Ruben Legazpi 2-1,256-11
Group G:
Marco Zanetti put not only NC Long, a relatively unknown Vietnamese, but then also Glenn Hofman on the racks. In fact, the star Italian player was sovereign in that match against the Dutchman with World Cup ambitions. Zanetti won 40-18 and dealt a rakish blow to Hofman. The battle for second place was between Hofman and Long. And again Hofman showed to be a player of many heights and occasional slumps. Against the Vietnamese, the Dutchman started with 9 and eventually won sovereignly 40-20 in 19. Marco Zanetti preceded Hofman unbeaten in the rankings with 4 points and 1.904.
The standings in Group G:
1 Marco Zanetti 6-1,904-11
2 Glenn Hofman 4-1,555-9
3 Nguyen Chi Long 2-1,636-7
4 Jung Han Heo 0-1,014-6
Group H:
Could Roland Forthomme still get involved in the battle with the two world champions? Sameh Sidhom was leading after two rounds with 4 points and 2,285, Tasdemir after losing against Sidhom (40-28 in 17) had to win against Forthomme in his last game. But first Sidhom made a real demonstration of it in front of his own crowd. The Egyptian crowned the group with a win against Son 40-14 in 14 and is the best winner overall on this day. Roland Forthomme made an ultimate attack at 39-33 behind to beat Tasdemir and go on himself. The Belgian stranded at 39-37 by a round-about that went behind. The win was for Tasdemir with 40-38 in 22.
The standings in Group H
1 Sameh Sidhom 6-2,448-11
2 Tayfun Tasdemir 4-1,928-8
3 Roland Forthomme 2-1.786-9
4 Hyuk Son Hun 0-1.173-7