ISTANBUL - Two Belgian world class players, Frédéric Caudron and Eddy Merckx, five Koreans with a mission and Spaniard Dani Sánchez show up for the quarter finals in the World Cup this afternoon. The Belgians were amazing strong today and are the main contenders, with Merckx as best player in fourteen innings.
Frédéric Caudron, the world champion, outplayed one of the remaining Koreans (Jae Guen Kim, 40-31 in 22), Eddy Merckx defeated the last Turkish player in the tournament, Savas Bulut 40-18 in 14. Dani Sánchez defeated another major contender, Filippos Kasidokostas, 40-13 in 19.
But the five greedy Koreans, who play a World Cup in their own country later in the year and even more want to shine at the World championship in Korea, are smoking hot in Istanbul.
Dong Koong Kang is one of those players who can hit the bull's eye in the World Cups. He showed it in Guri last year. His performance against Marco Zanetti, today, was not so superior, but he won the by a wide margin (40-26 in 29).
Choong Bok Lee, the conqueror of Torbjörn Blomdahl yesterday, took the win against the feared Vietnamese Quiet Chien Tran in a sizzling match and by only one carom (40-39 in 22).
Sung -Won Choi defeated Jean Paul de Bruijn not in one of his best matches (40-30 in 35), but Kyung-Roul Kim (40-20 against Palazón) and Jae Ho Cho (vs Colombian Campino, 40-22 in 26) have shown that they are ready for the coup.
The matches in the quarterfinals, all live on Kozoom (1700 Turkish time):
Caudron-Choi
Merckx-Kang
Sánchez-Cho
Kyung-Roul Kim-Lee.