Will this be Eddy Leppens' tournament?

SUWON – Everybody knows he can play billiards. But Eddy Leppens has shown it on the very highest level only once, in the Sluiskil World Championship where he was stopped in the final by Dani Sánchez.

In other tournaments, he can rise to surprising heights from time to time, as he showed in the qualifications of the Suwon World Cup. The Belgian won his group with impressive statistics: a general average of 2.846.

So the question is: will this be Eddy Leppens’ tournament, the man who has chased a top-12 position fors o long? His first match in the main draw is a biggie: he meets Dick Jaspers, who has just been dethroned as world champion.
His flawless performance in the last qualification round did not even bring Eddy Leppens to the top of the table. Hyung Suk Kim, unlike Leppens, did not lose a single set, and averaged 2.500.

Were there surprises in that last round? Murat Naci Coklu had basically no problem with Jean Paul de Bruijn, whom he beat in the last match of flight A, with 15-11 and 15-11 in 9 and 10 innings.

Lütfi Cenet in flight B eliminated Vietnamese Anh Vu Duong; Robinson Morales pulled off a win against Korean Choong Bok Lee.
Javier Palazón can get back on his feet after his slump, now his win over  Andreas Efler made him the winner in flight D.

Eddy Leppens played a glorious last match against Michael Nilsson, who was kept off the table for two entire sets: 15-0 in two innings (1st set) and 15 -5 in two innings (3d set). The set inbetween was won by Nilsson, 15 – 14. Average for Leppens: 3.384, average for Nilsson 1.666!

Hyun Suk Kim kicked Ryuuji Umeda out of the tournament in a quality match (2.307 average), Adnan Yüksel saved his skin, having lost the first set but still winning 2 – 1 against Vinh Ly The, bringing three players on 2 match points, Yüksel advancing on sets.

Sang Pil Um eliminated Roland Forthomme 2-0; Sameh Sidhom needed to win his second match against Luis Aveiga and did so: 2- 0. Very surprising was the exit of Ruben Legzpi, who had had a great start but lost his second match 2 – 1 to Hyung Bum Hwang.

Quoc Nguyen Nguyen lost his second match to Savas Bulut, but also advances on sets. The Vietnamese had 1.683 in his last match.

The draw for the first round of the main tournament:
Frédéric Caudron-Dong Koong Kang
Eddy Merckx-Sameh Sidhom
Kouji Funaki-Javier Palazón
Filippos Kasidokostas-Murat Naci Coklu
Marco Zanetti-Tayfun Tasdemir
Sung Won Choi-Lütfi Cenet
Jung Han Heo-Hyun Suk Kim
Dani Sánchez-Heriberto Aristazabal
Torbjörn Blomdahl-Nguyen Nguyen
Jae Ho Cho-Ma
Kyung-Roul Kim-Sang Pil Um
Raimond Burgman-Robinson Morales
Jérémy Bury-Carlos Campino
O Takeshima-Hyung Bum Hwang
Martin Horn -Adnan Yüksel
Dick Jaspers-Eddy Leppens.