LUXOR - The carpet in the upstairs room of the Sonesta St. George Hotel Luxor will be rolled out on Saturday morning for two semifinalists from the world's top ten and two from the sub top in the world ranking. The final day at the World Cup, the second of the year, turns out to be a fight between one Belgian player with a rich palmares (Eddy Merckx), the Korean Jae Ho Cho, the whimsical and unpredictable Greek Nikos Polychronoupoulos and the Frenchman Jérémy Bury, who lost his place in the top twelve and tries to come back.
Without the Turks, who colored this World Cup with Ahmet Alp, Lütfi Cenet and Murat Tüzül, without Vietnamese and particularly without Torbjörn Blomdahl, Dani Sánchez, Dick Jaspers and Frédéric Caudron, the battle for the highest podium places comes to the showdown on the banks of the Nile. Those who want to put their money on Eddy Merckx, should have a chance at least to double the bet. But who dares to make predictions in this tournament?
The most únpredictable of all, in the final part, was Dong Koong Kang, who missed his seven match balls against Caudron in the previous round and now, in his match against Nikos Polychronopoulos, always faced a serious disadvantage (20-12, 34-23, 38-29). But on his best, at the end, he turned the match into a titanic struggle. Because, when the Greek couldn't finish under pressure, Kang came closer, with six to 38-35 and in the equalizer with three for 40-40. The shootout, with a three-start for Polychronopoulos, raised the tension. The Greek shook his head, was not happy with his score, went to his chair, but then saw his opponent miss from the spots.
Jérémy Bury had a masterful final sprint, as in his previous match against Palazón. The Frenchman remained in balance with his Vietnamese opponent Quoc Nguyen Nguyen and used his last run (5) at 35-34 as a springboard to the finish.
Jae Ho Cho and Eddy Merckx had a sort of a walk-over in the first session of the quarterfinals. The Belgian ended Ahmet Alp's wonderful dream in this World Cup after an explosive start (23-2 in seven) and closed the match at 40-23 in 24. The Korean toughened the match against Lütfi Cenet, who played a strong tournament, but stumbled before the final day: 40-23 in 23.
The question is for now: who can speed up for the final day in Luxor? Who will steal the show and take a shot at the title in this World Cup with no shortage of highlights at all?
The matches for the semi-finals on Saturday:
11.00: Merckx-Cho
13.00: Bury-Polychronopoulos.