ANDERNOS - Marco Zanetti and Roland Forthomme are the next two winners in the group phase of the Kozoom Challenge Cup. They join Dick Jaspers and Michael Nilsson from the first preliminaries. Three of those four winners are players from the Kozoom stable. Dutchman Dick Jaspers and Italian Marco Zanetti play in the French team competition for Andernos, Roland Forthomme even has been nicknamed 'Le Belge du Bassin' after his loyal service in Kozoom ranks, referring to the famous Bassin of Arcachon, the unique inland sea in open connection with the Atlantic Ocean. The Belgian plays for the team of Kozoom.
Marco Zanetti led from start to finish in Group C and finished with 10 sets won, ahead of Ruben Legazpi with 7 and Arnim Kahofer with 1 set. The Italian maestro started the three-day event with two set wins and finished with a win in the 18th and final set. He was threatened only once, after two day sessions, by Legazpi, the first edition winner of Kozoom's Challenge Cup. The Spaniard approached to within one set, but was put on a bigger margin on the third day by Zanetti with four Italian sets won.
The two top favorites finally battled it out among themselves, because Arnim Kahofer could not get involved in the fight for the group win. The Austrian won only the third set with 10, 9 for Legazpi and 1 for Zanetti. Furthermore, the Italian, who was also a finalist last year, prevailed with excellent set wins, including once in two innings, three times in three and once in four innings.
Ruben Legazpi only grabbed his first set win in the 6th set (2 innings) and was the best man on the second day with 4 set wins in 4, 7, 4 and 6 innings. That brought him close to Zanetti in the standings, but because the Italian immediately won two sets at the start of the third day, the tension was almost gone. Zanetti finished with the best average in this group, although minimal: 1,688 against 1,608. Zanetti had the highest average on the last match day with 2,125. Legazpi made with 8 the highest run in this group over 3 days.
The final ranking in Group C:
1 Marco Zanetti 10-1,688-7
2 Ruben Legazpi 7-1,608-8
3 Arnim Kahofer 1-0,933-5.
Roland Forthomme, Dave Christiani and Nikos Polychronopoulos fought out a close match in Group D. The Greek even had the best start with 3 set wins on the first day against 2 for Forthomme and 1 for Christiani. That position turned to Forthomme's advantage on the second day (5-4-3), when the Belgian giant took the last two exciting sets: Polychronopoulos opened in the penultimate with 9, Forthomme reacted in that first inning with 10. Then, in the last, Forthomme finished with a minimal lead: 10 in 5 ahead of Christiani with 9 and Polychronopoulos with 8.
The Belgian took another opportunity at the start of the third day, when Christiani had missed the set ball and Forthomme could finish. The Dutchman came back slightly with two sets won, but in the last three sets Forthomme with two set wins and Polychronopoulos with one decided over the final ranking.
Roland Forthomme was also the best in average (1,675) with 8 sets won and was the only one of six players on these three days to score the maximum ten (2x). Dave Christiani and Nikos Polychronopoulos finished with 5 sets won, the Dutchman was slightly better in average: 1,481 against 1,474.
The final ranking in Group D:
1 Roland Forthomme 8-1,675-10
2 Dave Christiani 5-1,481-8
3 Nikos Polychronopoulos 5-1,474-9.
Roland Forthomme moves up to the finals: best average and best run in his group