SEOUL - The new Asian champion Quyet Chien Tran, the Turkish number one Semih Sayginer, the Belgian giant Eddy Merckx and the highly talented Myung-Woo Cho have not reached the final rounds. Three Koreans and Dick Jaspers slipped along to the best sixteen at the Survival 3C Masters in Seoul today, Friday, in the second chance matches. The tournament continues on Saturday starting at 3:00pm Korean time with the four matches for the quarterfinals, where the number one and two in the world, Jaspers and Caudron, face each other.
Twelve players from the first qualification had already qualified, three matches of four still battled it out for four places: the three winners and the best number two. Dick Jaspers needed a bit of luck to be in the best 16. The world champion finished second in his competition, in which Wan Young Choi was the the surprising winner. The best winner of all was Jae-Ho Cho with 96 points and 2.333 on average.
Three Koreans grabbed the final chance to qualify: Wan Young Choi was first in the match with Dick Jaspers, Quyet Chien Tran and Jérémy Bury. Jae-Ho Cho had a pretty big lead over Eddy Merckx, Semih Sayginer and Nguyen Quoc Nguyen. Jung-Han Heo won the fight with Sameh Sidhom, Myung-Woo Cho and Dong Ryong Kim.
Wan Young Choi scored regularly with 4, 7, 3 and 4 to be the best. Dick Jaspers reached his top with a run of eight, but came short in his last shot to become the match winner. "I had to wait for a my chance then", the Dutchman knew. "Sometimes you are lucky, sometimes not, like in the LG Cup where I was out on one carom. The system is unpredictable, the chances go up and down. I would love to have such a Survival Masters organized in the Netherlands."
Jae-Ho Cho forced his victory with 5 and 6 twice2. Semih Sayginer had a strong start in that group with 7, 5 and 6 in the first part, but a weak finish with three misses. And Eddy Merckx couldn't qualify, because he didn't make enough runs.
Jung-Han Heo started his attack just after the break with 5, 5 and 8, but he remained in sight of his rivals by four misses in a row. Sameh Sidhom, who had a big lead around the break, then missed the opportunities for qualifying.
The strange thing about this day was that not one run of ten or more was made.
The matches:
Match A:
1 Wan Young Choi 90-2.000-7
2 Dick Jaspers 86-1.928-8
3 Quyet Chien Tran 50-1.285-5
4 Jérémy Bury 14-0.642-3
Match B:
1 Jae-Ho Cho 96-2.333-6
2 Semih Sayginer 66-1.800-7
3 Eddy Merckx 66-1.800-7
4 Nguyen Quoc Nguyen 12-0.928-7
Match C:
1 Jung-Han Heo 87-1.631-8
2 Sameh Sidhom 71-1.421-5
3 Myung-Woo Cho 61-1.315-5
4 Dong Ryong Kim 21-0.611-3.
The matches for tomorrow in the quarters:
Match 1: 15.00 Korean time
Murat Naci Coklu, Frédéric Caudron, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Dick Jaspers
Match 2: 17.00
Marco Zanetti, Tayfun Tasdemir, Martin Horn, Jung-Han Heo
Match 3: 20.00
Dani Sánchez, HaengJik Kim, Dinh Nai Ngo, Wan Young Choi
Match 4: 22.00
In-Won Kang, Eddy Leppens, Sung-Won Choi, Jae-Ho Cho.
Wan Young Choi, surprising winner in match with Jaspers, Tran and Bury
Jung-Han Heo, on top in the match with Sidhom, Cho and Kim
Dick Jaspers, the best runner-up to reach the best 16