3-Cushion
SCHILTIGHEIM - Two Koreans, of whom Kyung-Roul Kim is living in Seoul, the main city with 10.3 million inhabitants and Sung-Won Choi from Busan, the second city with 5 million inhabitants, one German (Martin Horn) from Essen (600.000) and a Swede (Torbjörn Blomdahl) living in Backnang (Germany, 35,000 inhabitants) are going to lead the Agipi Masters to the grand final, today in the semi finals, tomrorrow in the final.
Two winners of previous editions (Blomdahl, 2008 and Choi, 2011) compete against two players who are in the best four fir the first time. They have survived the quarterfinals, in which Dick Jaspers, Dani Sánchez, Eddy Merckx and Filipos Kasidokostas were outplayed.
The most sensational match was the victory of Torbjörn Blomdahl against Filipos Kasidokostas with 50-7 in 20 innings. The Swede had a blistering start, when he stunned his opponent with a 31-0 backlog.
Two cultures, with one big goal will meet this afternoon at 18.30 (Blomdahl-Choi) and 20.00 (Horn-Kim) in the arena, where the Eurosport 2 and Kozoom cameras register all the matches, the highlights and all the details of these top matches.
The question of course is: are Blomdahl and Horn, the two luminaries of the quarterfinals, able to stop the Korean giants. The Swede excelled in a full speed match again Kasidokostas, the German showed an admirable fighting spirit against Dick Jaspers, the player he named as the best of the world after the match.
Two cultures, four characters, on big goal: the trophy and the big money in the Agipi Masters.
Torbjörn Blomdahl (49) is by far the player with the most experience and titles. He was four times world champion, the last was in Grubbenvorst in 1997, he won 39 World Cup tournaments and ten times the overall cycle, inclusing the last in 2011.
He is one of the most attractive players at the top, with his flashy, phlegmatic playing style and often brilliant arsenal of stroke and high class points to impress his opponents.
Kyung-Roul Kim (32) is eighth on the world rank, where he dropped a few places last year. He won one World Cup so far and is the third of his country, Jae Ho Cho is the first, Sung-Won Choi the second.
He is the player with the ultimate concentration, the wonderful stroke, motionless at the table, going very deep in the cueball sometimes, until recently known for his stoic behavior, but since last years a jovial personality, who celebrates his victories for the camera with a wild cry of joy.
Martin Horn (41) was one time in his career the world's best in one cushion, but for years the figurehead of the German three-cushion. He didn't took so many titles so far, he won one World Cup in Antalya in a final against Dick Jaspers. He showed his great happiness, yesterday evening, after he qualified for the semifinals, yearning for a new highlight.
The role-model of technical skill, combined with a strong character, the mentality of an athlete, as he showed yesterday against Jaspers. Moreover, he is known as one of the players with an unerring sense for position play.
Sung-Won Choi (34) has climbed up to sixth place in the world: he won the last edition of the Agipi Masters and the last World Cup in Antalya, he's considered as the coming man with a great future in the circuit.
He is the type of the perfect, stylish street fighting man, a great player to watch with a final sprint that made Mark Cavendish so famous in the cycling peloton. The victory last year in the Agipi Masters was unforgettable: the Korean crawled three times through the eye of the needle, in the final he defeated Jérémy Bury in a breathtaking battle.