Filipos Kasidokostas among the greatest players

NICE - Filipos Kasidokostas, who finished as penultimate in the Crystal Kelly tournament in 2010, has shared himself among the world's top players this year. The 27-year-old Greek was seeded after an impressive match against Frans van Kuijk, in which he missed only once, and in his last match against Eddy Merckx for the semi-finals. There he will meet Dick Jaspers. The other semi-final is the repetition of the final battle in 2010: the match between Marco Zanetti and Torbjörn Blomdahl.

The Greek ex-world champion Kasidokostas reached the semis with high-quality matches. The man who doesn't participate in the world championship in Peru (South America) due to financial problems in his country, will fight for the main prizes in Nice, although Frédéric Caudron did an ultimate attempt to finish in his group before Kasidokostas. The Belgian played a fantastich last match against Marco Zanetti. Caudron finished after only fourteen innings 50-26. With runs of nine, eleven and twelve Caudron achieved the shortest match of the tournament so far.

Nevertheless he missed his place in the top four, because Kasidokostas controled his last match against Eddy Merckx from the beginning. He had to finish within 27 innings to end up before Caudron in the group with his generally average, therefore he was pretty nervous in the closing stage. That's why he missed some bankshots, but nevertheless he finished in 24 innings: 50-36. Eddy Merckx finished as last in the group after his defeat.

In the other group Dick Jaspers, who had nothing to fear after three victories, had to play his last match against his Dutch teammate, the Swede Torbjörn Blomdahl, who also was already seeded for the semifinals. The struggle between the two had a slow start. In the second part Jaspers began to take distance from his opponent. Although Blomdahl increased his personal tournament record (run of fifteen), he didn't succeed to stop the Dutch machine. In the last seven innings Jaspers scored 33 caroms: 50-44 (19).