1-Cushion
SAINT-BREVIN-LES-PINS - The World championship one cushion comes to a final with the two most famous players in this game type. They are in this discipline of billiards like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in football, Alberto Contador and Chris Froome in the Tour de France, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal in tennis and Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov in the former chess. Frédéric Caudron and Jean Paul de Bruijn dominate the championships and tournaments in one cushion already for many years.
The two main specialists meet each other at the Stade de l'Etoile in Saint-Brevin-les-Pins at 14.00 for the battle for gold. The Belgian world champion in three cushion is slightly favorite, based on his last matches at this World campionship. The Dutchman nevertheless is a feared and formidable opponent, who is almost unstoppable in his high runs in his best moments.
Frédéric Caudron picked up his ticket for the final this morning against Xavier Gretillat with the grandeur of a player for whom only the title counts. He bested his Swiss opponent in a good, solid and sometimes glittering performance, with a strong start (66-20 in 3), after a first run of 34, then ran out to 111-20 with a 45-45 run in the fourth and finished the match off in 8 innings: 150-58.
Jean Paul de Bruijn played a tough semifinal against Torbjörn Blomdahl, although he built up a big margin in ten innings (86-42), but he couldn't show his strongest weapon (the high run) and therefore needed twenty innings to finish: 150-104.