LA BAULE - The name Christakis Christoforou certainly doesn't impress many fans of billiards these days during the World Cup in La Baule. The grey, 55 year old gentleman from Cyprus, told us on his journey from Paris to La Baule, after a fifteen-hour trip, that he hasn't so much time for his favourite sport, because of his work as a chemical engineer. But don't underestimate him, the 55-year-old islander with the same name as the former football coach of the national Cyprus team, Cyprus, who just started to play billiards when he was thirty. Francis Forton, the little Belgian star player on the first days, has experienced his high class.
,,Where did this man play learn to play this wonderful billiards'', whispered the maestro Raymond Ceulemans in the World Cup stands when the Cypriot from Limassol started his quick attack against Forton and eventually even won in an excellent match: 30-26 in 17 innings. He is not a totally unknown player in the circuit, this Christakis: because he is the only serious billiards player in his country, he has been invited five times to a World championship. This year, he is also expected in Bolivia, next month at the World championship, but he doubts. ,,I can't make myself free, so I think I'll have to cancel.''
That it wasn't a coincidence, the match against Francis Forton, he also showed in his second match. The Belgian was still hoping to advance for the next round and that his rival would lose against the Japanese Nobuyasu Sakai. But also in that match, Christoforou quickly ran away to 11-0 in two innings and 23-4 in 11. And at the end, he finished with a huge gap: 30-15 in 8. That brought him on top of the day ranking with 4 matchpoints and 1.875 on average, ahead of Ku Kang Sang, Birol Uymaz, Hideaki Kobayashi and Chang-Hoon Seo.
The French bastion, with 26 players in the forefront, was knocked down in the run-up to the last qualifications and lost its last players on Wednesday. Jérémy Bury (seeded) and Jérôme Barbeillon (wild card) will come to the arena for the main tournament on Friday. Adrien Tachoire already felt on cloud nine when he first defeated Glenn Hofman (33-20 in 17) and then saw the Dutchman win his match in that group against Kostas Kokkoris. But in his third match, Tachoire, who could afford a loss with a good average, wasn't a shadow of his first performance. When he lost 30-19 in 23 against Kokkoris, the young Frenchman missed the qualification. Glenn Hofman, who saw the match on Kozoom in his hotel room, won the group on average: 1.336 against 1.225 for Tachoire.
Tonnie Carlsen realized a little miracle and left the arena with a big smile. The Danish veteran had a dramatic start and was almost out after his loss against Wan Young Choi in his first match (30-13 in 21). But after an amazing come-back, Carlsen will show up in the next round. He had to win his second match against Savas Güngör in 14, excelled in that match with a run of 15 and finished exactly in 14 innings: 30-9. The lovely smile on his face showed how happy Tonnie was with his qualification.
The closing session was played on a very high level: not only Carlsen (14 innings) and Christoforou (15), also Juan David Zapata finished in the last round in 15 against Murat Tüzül and Hideaki Kobayashi did the same against Apostolis Balogiannis. Dave Christiani defeated in his first match Joao Ferreira in 15 innings. The best match of the day, however, came from Birol Uymaz, who started with a huge win over his countryman Gökhan Salman (30-8 in ten). The Korean Ku-Kang Sang shone, together with Tonny Carlsen, with the best run (15).
Rui Costa showed the last master piece of the day in the match against against Dave Christiani, which he had to win to be back tomorrow. The Portuguese finished with six when he was 26-24 down, the Dutchman missed after two points in the equalizer: 30-28.
The final ranking on day 3:
1 Christakis Christoforou 4-1.875-6
2 Sang Ku Kang 4-1.764-15
3 Birol Uymaz 4-1.578-9
4 Hideaki Kobayashi 4-1.578-9
5 Chang Hoon Seo 4-1.500-11
6 Juan David Zapata 4-1.500-6
7 Lars Dunch 4-1.463-9
8 Kwang Yeo Park 4-1.395-8
9 Rui Costa 4-1.276-8
10 Jacob Sörensen 4-1.276-6
11 Jung Wan Lim 4-1.000-5
12 Atsushi Kiyota 4-0.967-6
13 Dustin Jäschke 3-1.395-8
14 Young-Hoon Lee 2-1.552-7
15 Glenn Hofman 2-1.368-8
16 Tonny Carlsen 2-1.228-15.
The groups for the last qualification day:De poules voor de laatste kwalificatiedag:
Poule A: Dustin Jäschke, Atsushi Kyota, Jae-Ho Cho
Poule B: Young Hoon Lee, Jung Wan Lim, Tayfun Tasdemir
Poule C: Glenn Hofman, Jacob Haack Sörensen, Eddy Leppens
Poule D: Tonny Carlsen, Rui Costa, Dong-Koong Kang
Poule E: Chi Yeon Cho, Kwang Yeol Park, Semih Sayginer
Poule F: Xuan Cuong Ma, Lars Dunch, Myung-Woo Cho
Poule G: Adnan Yüksel, Juan David Zapata, Minh Cam Ma
Poule H: David Martinez, Chang Hoon Seo, Anh Vu Duong
Poule I: Dinh Nai Ngo, Hideaki Kobayashi, Javier Palazón
Poule J: Lütfi Cenet, Birol Uymaz, Roland Forthomme
Poule K: Can Capak, Sang Ku Kang, Riad Nady
Poule L: Jae-Guen Kim, Hyung-Kon Kim, Christakis Christoforou.
Adrien Tachoire defeated Glenn Hofman, the Dutchman topped the ranking after the Frenchman lost to Kostas Kokkoris
Birol Uymaz, match against Salman in ten innings
Juan David Zapata, to next round after strond performance