3-Cushion
SEOUL - How is it that Tayfun Tasdemir played a match full of misses and mistakes in the early morning hours, in which he was unrecognizable as one of the big contenders in the Survival Masters? And a few hours later, in the same match room, showed up in a match with the flair, the focus and skills of the absolute world class player? When you ask the question, you know the answer. The player himself: ''Three cushion is a sport in which we never know whether we play very well or very badly today."
As it happened to Tayfun Tasdemir this morning, one game bad and no chance for a win, two hours later a match with the magic power of a global top gun. And look at Dick Jaspers, who miraculously escaped from the elimination later today in a crisis after two games, until the final sprint, in which he suddenly grew to his real greatness and forced his move up to the next round in a battle with Chang-Hoon Heo and far behind an unapproachable Marco Zanetti.
This was the day of the ups and downs on this first day of second chances. For Myung-Woo Cho, two weeks ago the glorious winner of a 65,000-euro tournament in Seoul with the world top. But who now, in the Survival, was not a shadow of that huge talent and was ruthlessly thrown out of the tournament in two matches.
And like Jérémy Bury in a match in which he faced a hopeless gap three innings from the end: 45 for the Frenchman against 77 for Quyet Chien Tran, 61 for Hyun-Suk Kim and 56 for Min-Seok Kim. The sudden attack turned the score upside down: Bury exploded with 14 and finished on top at the end ahead of Quyet Chien Tran.
Tayfun Tasdemir and Jung-Han Heo were the numbers one and two in Group A of these first consolations. Murat Naci Coklu and Nikos Polychronopoulos, without major outliers in Group B: Coklu with 4 times 4, Polychronopoulos with 1 time 5. Jérémy Bury took the win in Group C followed by Quyet Chien Tran and Marco Zanetti in Group D with a fabulous match: 3, 3 and 13 before the break, 5 and 6 after the stop with a wonderful score, 109 points.
Tomorrow's matches (Saturday) in the last second chance sessions (three group winners and 1 best runner-up for the finals):
10.00: Sayginer-Zanetti-Coklu-Heo
12.00: HJ Kim, Tasdemir, Bury, Jaspers
14.00: Nguyen-Klompenhouwer-Tran-Polychronopoulos
The rankings in the second chance groups:
Group A:
1 Tayfun Tasdemir 134-2,764-11
2 Jung-Han Heo 58-1,647-6
3 Myung Woo Cho 26-1,176-6
4 Hui-Dong Kim 22-1,117-5
Group B:
1 Murat Naci Coklu 86-1,318-4
2 Nikos Polychronopoulos 70-1,136-5
3 In-Wan Kong 54-0,954-6
4 Sung-Ha Yoon 30-0,681-3
Murat Naci Coklu, moved up to the next round with Nikos Polychronopoulos
Group C:
1 Jérémy Bury 77-2,000-14
2 Quyet Chien Tran 73-1,928-4
3 Min-Seok Kim 45-1,428-6
4 Hyun-Suk Kim 45-1,428-6
Jérémy Bury, strong attack at the end of the match
Group D:
1 Marco Zanetti 109-2,266-12
2 Dick Jaspers 60-1,500-4
3 Chang-Hoon Seo 53.1,333-4
4 Lütfi Cenet 18-0,800-3.
Marco Zanetti finished up on top with Dick Jaspers escaping to elimination