ANTALYA - The Antalya World Cup lost the world's top five on the first day of the knock-outs and is waiting for one of the most sensational final days. Two Turks and two Asians will enter the arena tomorrow, Sunday, in the battle for the main prizes. The first 2019 World Cup will welcome a winner who is not coming from the traditional list of big favorites. Tayfun Tasdemir and Murat Naci Coklu represent the home country Turkey in the semi-finals, Quyet Chien Tran and Jae-Ho Cho are playing for the strong field of Asians topguns.
The top five (Dick Jaspers, Frédéric Caudron, Eddy Merckx, Marco Zanetti and Semih Sayginer) have disappeared from the scene, as well as Jérémy Bury, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen, Sameh Sidhom, Jung-Han Heo and HaengJik Kim who are all out from the protected top fourteen. Furthermore, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Dani Sánchez and Nikos Polychronopoulos have left the arena. The billiard world is not only on the move behind the scenes, also on sporting level, sensation is coming up on the final day. The Turkish home crowd is preparing for a wonderful day with at least one Turkish player in the final match, one Korean and one Vietnamese also have a shot at World Cup gold in this first 2019 classic.
What a sensational score showed the scoreboard on Saturday afternoon in the early sessions with the last sixteen. Lütfi Cenet against Frédéric Caudron, 40-24 in 24 innings!!! Rarely we've seen so many misses when the Belgian was at the table, rarely he must have felt so helpless in the room where he usually feels so at home. What a start from the Turkish number 30 on the world ranking (!), with 15-4, 21-4 (in 13) and even 35-12 in 20 innings. Yes, Caudron was unrecognizable, vulnerable and not a shadow of himself in twenty innings. At the end, there was a 40-24 score in 24, bringing Lütfi Cenet in the spotlights as the third Turkish winner in four rounds.
He was amazed himself in his comments: "I had a promising start, could continue my score and offer Caudron difficult positions at the start. Then, he also started to miss easy points. I didn't know what happened. And yes, I felt pressure at the end as well, but I could finish it off. I'm very happy with that.''
Tayfun Tasdemir and Murat Naci Coklu completed the Turkish success that Saturday morning with victories over Dinh Nai Ngo and David Martinez. Coklu finished in 18 innings and outplayed the Spaniard, who remained unbeaten in the prequalifications: 40-33. Tasdemir dominated his match after 21-21 at the stop and bested Dinh Nai Ngo 40-24 in 24. But it was just the start of a very remarkable day.
Dick Jaspers was one of the next top guns who was 'killed' without any mercy. And the Dutchman was warned by his first loss against Pedro Piedrabuena, in the first preliminary round. The American, not a high flyer on the world rankings (63rd), replayed his piece of art in the last sixteen. Jaspers led 22-19 at the break, but then was beaten by Piedrabuena 40-36 in 33 innings. Another top three player left the building.
What about Eddy Merckx, could he live up to his reputation? Not at all... Quyet Chien Tran, the coming man in the top ten of the ranking, went along for a long time with Merckx (28-26 in 18) and then handed out the knock-out at 40-28 in 22. Torbjörn Blomdahl was the next victim, against Sung-Won Choi (40-36 in 22) and Dani Sánchez was knocked down by Jae-Ho Cho 40-23 in 20.
Martin Horn showed his resilience in the match against Roland Forthomme, in which he had to chase for a long time (16-8, 20-11), but then attacked in the second part. The German counter stopped the Belgian, who stopped his scoring rhythm and was easily defeated in the final innings: 40-31 in 23.
In the early Turkish night, the World Cup's top eight faced each other. Tayfun Tasdemir was the better in the clash with Lütfi Cenet 40-30 in 18 and Murat Naci Coklu showed up as the winner in the match against Martin Horn: 40-28 in 22. The second session was an Asian clash: Quyet Chien Tran played the best match from the quarter-finals and defeated Sung-Won Choi 40-24 in 14.
Pedro Piedrabuena, the man of two wins in this tournament against the world champion and number one Dick Jaspers, tried a brave attempt against Jae-Ho Cho, but missed on one point in the equalizer at one carom: 40-39 in 33. Jae-Ho Cho and Quyet Chien Tran are the players who approach the top five of the world rankings. Dick Jaspers will remain the number one.
The matches for the semi-finals, on Sunday morning:
10.00 (Turkish time):
Tasdemir-Coklu
12.00: Tran-Cho
Final at 15.00.
Tayfun Tasdemir, first a win against Lütfi Cenet, now facing Murat Naci Coklu in the semi finals
Murat Naci Coklu, the second Turk to try to reach the match for gold
Jae-Ho Cho, close to the world's top five
Quyet Chien Tran, the Vietnamese in the last four
Roland Forthomme and Martin Horn 'faced' each other in the last sixteen