3-Cushion
GURI - The last Turkish star in the Guri World Cup enters the final day on turbo speed. Tayfun Tasdemir showed high runs of 20, 19 and 11 in two days and was the best of four winners on Saturday in the quarter finals to compete for the gold medal on Sunday. The three other players for the top spots on podium are Jérémy Bury, Eddy Merckx and 24-year-young Jun-Tae Kim. Tayfun Tasdemir already won a World Cup in Antalya this year and is therefore in the top three of the rankings following HaengJik Kim and Dick Jaspers. ''I don't consider myself as a main contender for victory, because one great day means nothing in this field with only big players'', the amiable Turk from Istanbul said on the eve of the final day. He is more than ever feared for his high runs, as he demonstrated these days. With an apologetic fantasy, Tasdemir calculated: ''With these 20, 19 and 11, I scored 50 caroms in three innings. That is not even very special, because in practice, I make at least five runs of twenty every week and often around thirties. The most important is that I feel the table well, like at my own training table. Then, I usually play well on speed, touch the balls perfectly and play position.'' On Saturday, in the quarterfinals against Jung Han Heo, Tasdemir showed that in his fourth inning with the flawless 20, which was broken down on a makeable point in the corner.
Jérémy Bury, who won his first and only World Cup here in Guri, already secured his place in the semi-finals by a victory over Dani Sánchez 40-21 in 25, Eddy Merckx then followed in the final session of the day with a win over Tran (40-28 in 20) and Jun-Tae Kim, who beat Sung-Won Choi 40-36 in 31. The Korean is the outsider in the field on Sunday. He was twice on the podium as number two in the Junior World championship, also showed his excellent form last week in the World Cup in the Netherlands and played a record over a month ago in the Seoul Survival, where he achieved a match score of 182, among other things with a 16 run.
The semi-finals on Sunday:
15.00 Korean time, 7.00 Western Europe:
Tayfun Tasdemir-Jérémy Bury
17.00 (9.00 Western Europe): Eddy Merckx-Jun-Tae Kim.
Quarter-finals:
Eddy Merckx-Quyet Chien Tran 40-28 in 20
The more he comes to the final day, the stronger the Belgian is. The always feared Vietnamese Tran quickly was 17-6 down in 5 and 26-9 in 8 innings and could not turn around the game. Merckx has not yet won his traditional World Cup this year and will no doubt be a dreaded opponent this Sunday. Moreover, the Belgian can score important points for the world ranking, on which he is number five now.
Jun-Tae Kim-Sung-Won Choi 40-36 in 31
The youngest of four finalists had a better first half than his opponent, leading him to 20-10 in 10. He then ran out to 33-23 in 23, got the finish in sight at 38-25 in 26, but then felt the tension coming up. Four misses in a row offered Choi the chance to come back to 38-36, but at that crucial moment, Kim was able to make his last two points and could lift his cue in joy.
Tayfun Tasdemir-Jung Han Heo 40-21 in 15
The formidable run of 20 by Tayfun Tasdemir was the killing attack in the match. The Turkish stylist showed a glimmer of his high class in the fourth inning, after he had made a 19-run one day before. That already makes Tayfun one of the star players of this event. Heo's fight for a serious counter was in vain: he came from 25-10 down to 34-21 in 13. Two innings later, Tasdemir pulled the trigger.
Jérémy Bury-Dani Sánchez 40-25 in 21
The Frenchman feels at his best in the Korean stronghold, where he shone with his only win so far in a World Cup two years ago. The start in the match with Sánchez turned out in Bury's favor, although not with high scores: 15-10 in 10. The Spaniard could not threaten at all, had one outlier with 7 in the 15th inning, but came barely further than 1 and 2 scores. Bury's knock-out came with 6-6-2, where Sánchez only scored twice in his last five attempts.
The first knock-out stage with 16, on Saturday, did not reach the level of the previous days. Jung-Han Heo, in the brother fight with Jae-Ho Cho, was the best winner, 40-33 in 19 innings. The best run, 9, came out of Jun-Tae Kim's cue, the young Korean who moved up to the top eight again like in Netherlands previous World Cup. Three Koreans, Sung-Won Choi, Jun-Tae Kim and Jung-Han Heo, went on to Saturday night's party in the round with the last sixteen. They were accompanied to the last eight by one Vietnamese (Quyet Chien Tran), one Belgian (Eddy Merckx), one Frenchman (Jérémy Bury), one Spaniard (Dani Sánchez) and one Turk (Tayfun Tasdemir).
Most of the matches of these eight showed little tension. Only Jun-Tae Kim faced some opposition from Nikos Polychronopoulos in the final part, in which he ran out with 9 and 5 to 38-35 shortly before the finish and after a last 4-and-4 from the Greek to 40-37 in 20. Sung-Won Choi and Myung Woo Cho, the clash of two style cultures, had a cautious start (20-14 in 10 for Choi). Little Cho lagged too far behind, rarely scored more than one and two and came from 40-32 in 25 in the last chance to 40-36.
Murat Naci Coklu led the match against Jérémy Bury 13-9 in 10 innings and then opened the first attack with 4, 3 and 5 for 23-17 in 15, followed by 4 and 7 for 34-20 in 18. Coklu countered by the same runs (4 and 7), but was beaten by a final 4 from Bury: 40-35 in 22. Jung-Han Heo showed himself the better in the other Korean fight with Jae-Ho Cho. The best of all on the first day of the main draw, Jae-Ho Cho, was not able to resist the regularly scoring Heo and lost 40-33 in 19.
Dani Sánchez vs Lütfi Cenet was not the match that was expected with two players in an excellent form. The start in particular was very poor with 10-5 in 10 for the Spaniard, who made a gap in the second part with 7, three times 3 and one 4 to reach the finish. Cenet, when he was on a 20-score, came back in his last two innings with 4 and 6 to 40-30 in 30. Eddy Merckx dominated the match against Nguyen Quoc Nguyen from the start (11-2 in 3), was overtaken by the Vietnamese for a while (19-16 in 10), but was the best scoring player in the last part: 40-29 in 22.
In the same round as Myung-Woo Cho, two other young players disappeared from the stage. Jose Juan Garcia, from Colombia that is tormented by internal sanctions, found his final station against Quyet Chien Tran 40-21 in 21. Antonio Montes came to the same score against Tayfun Tasdemir (40-21 in 25) with 13 misses and seven times one.
