ANTALYA - He showed his emotion only after the match, like all Koreans do when they play billiards. Sung-Won Choi lifted his cue into the air, made two deep bows to the audience and thoroughly enjoyed the applause of the crowd. Te Korean won his first World Cup in Antalya in the final against Tayfun Tasdemir (3-2), who went down, fighting like a Turkish lion and could be proud of his wonderful tournament.
They haven't won many World Cups so far, the Koreans, who have attacked the world top in three cushion in the passed years with Kyung-Roul Kim, Sung-Won Choi, Jae Ho Cho, Dong Koong Kang, Jung Han Heo and HaengJik Kim. Kyung-Roul Kim was coincidentally the last winner, also in Antalya (2010), where he beat Martin Horn in the semis and Dick Jaspers the final.
And of course it was predictable that Sung-Won Choi would join in a short time the illustrious list of top players in three cushion world.
The first Korean success in three cushion, by the way, came from Sang Chun Lee, who won his first of ten Korean titles in 1978, moved to New York in 1987 to start a billiard room and later was the winner of five professional tournaments of the BWA. The Korean American, who died in 2004, was the forerunner of the new generation of whom there are three in top twelve of the world now.
The 35-year-old Sung-Won Choi is so strong because of his wonderful technique and innate class, but also due to his immens killer instinct. He never will be impressed by full houses, playing against a home player who is supported by his own crowd: that's why he won in France the final of the Agipi Masters against Frenchman Jérémy Bury and this afternoon in Turkey and the World Cup against Tayfun Tasdemir.
In that final Choi first led 1-0, then trailed 2-1 and turned the match to 2-2 (15-12, 11-15, 9-15, 15-12). In the ultimate sets he was morally superior and stepped on to a perfect final shot: 8 in the final inning of the fourth set and 7 and 5 in the last two innings to the finish.
Sung-Won Choi increased to sixth place in the world rank by the victory. Tayfun Tasdemir remains on thirteenth place, 39 points away from the twelfth place of Jae Ho Cho.
Frédéric Caudron finished 2.195 overall average, the highest of all players. Sung-Won Choi ended up 1.581, Tayfun Tasdemir 1.623.
The World Cup in Antalya was the first in this year.