Crystal Kelly tournament has curious start

NICE - The 18th and final Crystal Kelly tournament in Nice had a curious begun. Three of the four matches finished in a tie (50-50), only Dick Jaspers won his match against Peter Ceulemans today.

The duel between European champion Dick Jaspers and Peter Ceulemans was a one-sided game, because the Belgian coming man could not follow his opponent in the race to victory. When the Dutchman took a big distance with a run of eleven, the battle was decided: 50-21 in 20 innings. Jaspers also realized the highest average: 2.500.

On the other table Frédéric Caudron needed 25 innings against former world champion Filipos Kasidokostas to score his fifty caroms. It was not enough, because the Greek came next to him in the equalizer. Kasidokostas then showed his resilience. When Caudron had took a lead with a run of fourteen, the Greek managed to scribble back and even take over the lead in the match. In the exciting closing phase, Kasidokostas scored five points in the equalizing inning.

The two opening matches also finished at 50-50. Frans van Kuijk showed the best performance against Eddy Merckx in the equalizer, when he made the six caroms he needed. Earlier in the match Van Kuijk was ten points ahead, Merckx came back in the match with a run of thirteen.

Semih Sayginer and Daniel Sánchez finished in balance too. Sayginer had the lead for a long time, Sánchez came back from far behind. He even took a lead, but then had a period of no scoring. The Turkish player seemed to run to victory on 44-37, but the Spanish world champion didn't give up. He came closer to his opponent with three and seven and equalized with three when Sayginer had reached the fifty points.

The Crystal Kelly tournament is played in groups of five. Marco Zanetti, the winner of 2010 and his opponent in the final twelve months ago, Torbjörn Blomdahl, play their first match tomorrow.