ANTWERP - The 53-year-old Swede Torbjörn Blomdahl has been voted Player of the Year on Saturday night at the Antwerp Hilton hotel. The reigning world champion also took the Super Cup in a match between the 2015 world champion and the World Cup winner. Therefor he was crowned to the undisputed star of the year, which he ended as the world's number one. ,,This was my best year ever'', Blomdahl said after he was rewarded by two checks of 5.000 euros at the gala, interviewed by Kozoom and a Swedish television station.
The Swedish whirlwind, son of Lennart Blomdahl with whom he won the World championship for national teams twice, defeated Dani Sánchez in Antwerp in the match for the Super Cup in ultra short sets: 4-1. After the match he took the spotlights of the gala hall, voted as the Player of the Year by a jury of the fifty best players in the world and the votes of all federations. Blomdahl took 118 votes, Sánchez 107 and Turkish player Tayfun Tasdemir 57.
The cool Swede showed a visible emotion overlooking the absolute best year in his career. Torbjörn, in an upbeat mood: ,,I don't think that my technical and playing level was the best of all my years before, but it was the year with the most titles and successes. It makes me happy to achieve this in an era with so many great players on such a high level. The only thing missing in last year's palmares was the overall World Cup victory, but I couldn't wish more than I have won now. That scares me a little bit for this year, this is not to repeat.''
The Swede first appeared at the top of the international stage in 1987 when he won the world title in Cairo. In the turbulent years following, forever marked as the BWA era with pros and amateurs, Torbjörn Blomdahl gradually took over the hegemony of the eternal legend Raymond Ceulemans. The new star, with a totally different style of playing, who combines superb and versatile attacking with clever and sly defence, is dominating the world of three cushion since those years with world titles (5), European titles (9) World Cups (42) and 'overall' World cups (11).
He took the Super Cup for the third time this Saturday night, for the third time he was elected Player of the Year. The contest to four winning sets of seven caroms had a typical Blomdahl start: a spectacular, quick start with some majestic points to power away from his rival: a 3-0 lead after three sets (7-6, 7-4, 7-1) . Dani Sánchez had some bad luck, showed his high class in the fourth set (7-3), but was finally beaten by Blomdahl who topped it off with 7-1 in the fifth set.
The election of the Player of the Year had a predictable outcome, though the difference between the winner (Blomdahl) and Dani Sánchez was smaller as expected:
1 Torbjörn Blomdahl 118 votes
2 Dani Sánchez 107
3 Tayfun Tasdemir 57.
Torbjörn Blomdahl shows his joy after he won the Super Cup
The gala evening was closed by a demonstration match between 'The dream team' with Blomdahl and Sánchez against the 'Belgian legends' Raymond Ceulemans and Ludo Dielis to two sets of ten. The new generation won 10-8 and 10-9.
Match for the Super Cup:
Blomdahl-Sánchez 7-6
Blomdahl-Sánchez 7-4
Blomdahl-Sánchez 7-1
Blomdahl-Sánchez 3-7
Blomdahl-Sánchez 7-1
Final score: Blomdahl-Sánchez 4-1
Torbjörn Blomdahl in a nice focus, Dani Sánchez watching from his chair
Player of the Year election:
1 Torbjörn Blomdahl 118 votes
2 Dani Sánchez 107
3 Tayfun Tasdemir 57.
The star of the night in Antwerp, Torbjörn Blomdahl with his opponent Dani Sánchez, Ludo Dielis, Raymond Ceulemans and the referee Martin Spoormans