LAUSANNE - The world top in three cushion which is heading for the World championship in Korea this week can be warned: the 52-year-old Italian Marco Zanetti won the Lausanne Billard Masters final this weekend against Martin Horn and is back from being away after the year in which he celebrated four stunning triumphs. The fire seemed to be off for a while, he didn’t feel hunger for more billiard successes.
But look what happened in the Swiss casino, in a field with eight of the best players in the world. The second edition of Diane Wild's tournament finished with the same winner as last year: that year Marco defeated Frédéric Caudron in a breathtaking battle, this year Zanetti’s triumph was totally unexpected.
The Italian arrived last week in the Swiss city, along the banks of the Geneva lake, in a worrying form, he said himself before the start. The defending champion was struggling with a jet lag after a short business stay in Colombia, had a chronic lack of sleep and seemed to miss the motivation to glitter a second time in a row.
Was it a form of deception for his opponents in the run-up to the World championship? It looked like, suspiciously, although on the opening day, Zanetti was indeed a distant shadow of the great player he was last year. The Italian won the European championship, the Agipi Masters, the World Games and the Lausanne Billard Masters that year.
,,And it will always be the most glorious year in my career’’, he said after his first games in which he was beaten by Martin Horn, his later opponent in the final.
But Zanetti’s confidence and form were growing every match, he rose to a level in which he’s a feared rival for all the world class players and eventually the Italian champion finished off with an unexpected, gorgeous victory. ,,I was getting better in each match and I could win, because because I made fewer mistakes than my opponents.’’
In the final match, on Sunday afternoon, he first defeated Dani Sánchez, in a much vaunted match due to a bizarre incident (a well-or-not exceeding the time limit, a conscious touché and a heated discussion with his opponent afterwards).
But anyway: Marco Zanetti, who did an overt genuflection after the match, took the victory, 40-38 in 19 innings and was again in the final. And he did a successful bid for the phenomenal double.
Two runs (6 and 5) brought him quickly on the lead (31-22) in the final game agasinst Martin Horn, who has been away already for a few years in the World Cups and only shows up in the national leagues. There he competes with the world players, now he could demonstrate his big form in Lausanne with the world stars.
The German came back into the match, even led 35-33 and 36-35 in the final part, but saw his gold rush stopped in the nail-biting, closing innings. Zanetti could lift his cue at 40-36 in 22 innings and celebrate his victory with the audience in Lausanne.
Diane Wild announced the next and third edition at the end of the tournament, that will be played on 20, 21 and 22 November 2015.
Torbjörn Blomdahl, who finished fifth in the final ranking, finished with the best average of ten players: 2.177, ahead of Dani Sánchez 2.175 and Jérémy Bury 2.028.
Dani Sánchez shone with the highest run: 21.
The final ranking:
1 Marco Zanetti 10-1.4818
2 Martin Horn 8-1.786-14
3 Dani Sánchez 8-2.175-21
4 Frédéric Caudron 4-2.125-8
5 Torbjörn Blomdahl 4-2.177-15
6 Sung-Won Choi 4-1.480-9
7 Jérémy Bury 4-2.028-10
8 Dick Jaspers 4-1.795-11
9 René Hendriksen 0-0.955-6
10 Fernando Couto 0-0.758-6.