Porto - There was a theme to the matches on the penultimate day of the Porto World Cup: nerves. Even the best players in the world can make silly mistakes when the pressure is on, and in Porto, that resulted in lots of drama and close finishes.
Helped by form of the day and a cool head in the heat of battle, four players were left standing at the end of a long Saturday: Haeng Jik Kim, Lütfi Cenet, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen and Jung Han Heo. Of the four players that for years were called "the big four" (Blomdahl, Jaspers, Caudron, Sanchez) none made it to the semifinals. The winner of the last World Cup (Merckx) and the reigning European champion (Zanetti) were also eliminated today.
Haeng Jik Kim dealt with Sameh Sidhom in the eighth final, despite a strong start by the Egyptian dentist. Haeng Jik dominated the second half of the match, with several runs of five and six. The runner-up of the last World Championship in Bordeaux needed no fewer than 32 innings to get over the line: 40-32. His quarterfinal was almost a walkover. The revelation of this tournament, Wan Young Choi, had run out of steam after his sensational wins over Jaspers and Sung Won Choi. Haeng Jik won in an easy 25 innings: 40 22.
Of the Turkish top-5 (Sayginer, Tasdemir, Coklu, Yüksel, Cenet), Cenet is the only one without a World Cup to his name. He might feel that this is his turn, because the stars are aligned in his favor. He had a miraculous escape in a shootout against Marco Zanetti, followed by a very tight 40-38 (19) win over Jae Ho Cho. Cenet once again showed that he has formidable street fighting abilities, because the Korean stylist almost had the match wrapped up. The Turk repeated his tour de force against Blomdahl, was also allowed to take a good lead: 21-8. From that point on, the Swede was denied any table time and had to watch as Cenet produced 32 points to his 3, resulting in a final score of 40-24 in 17 innings.
Vietnamese crowd pleaser Nguyen Quoc Nguyen was responsible for the elimination of top favorite Caudron. With a monster run of 17 he changed his deficit into a lead, but then had all sorts of trouble getting the last five points on the board. Caudron too was affected by the pressure, and made a few uncharacteristic mistakes. Nguyen showed heart and guts, to win 40-32 in 26. he was given just a very short interval, and then played his countryman Duong Anh Vu in the quarterfinal. It turned out to be a one-sided match, Nguyen was never in trouble: 40-22 in 18.
The eighth final between Koreans Jung Han Heo and Dong Koong Kang was high-quality: loser Kang recorded an average of 2.538, winner Heo even had 3.076, with a final score of 40-33 in 13 innings. Heo has visibly matured as a tournament player, and his Porto performance proves that his World Cup win in Hurghada 2016 was no fluke. In the quarterfinal, he had to take on the new number 1 player in the world, the reigning world champion Daniel Sánchez, who almost always wins matches that go as far as 39-38 or 39-39. Not this time though: in a wildly nervous closing ten minutes, it was Heo who had the long straw: 40-38 in 22 innings.
The eighth final between Sánchez and Merckx was possibly the most dramatic match of all, on this penultimate day. Merckx had three chances to make the final point, but missed by a hair on all three occasions. Daniel missed a shot he would normally make blindfolded, but still won the tombola: 40-39 in 27 innings gave him a place in the last eight.
The eighth finals:
Wan Young Choi - Sung Won Choi 40-35 in 25
Sameh Sidhom - Haeng Jik Kim 32-40 in 32
Eddy Leppens - Torbjörn Blomdahl 30-40 in 19
Jae Ho Cho - Lütfi Cenet 38-40 in 19
Frédéric Caudron - Nguyen Quoc Nguyen 32-40 in 26
Duong Anh Vu - Joao Ferreira 40-28 in 22
Dong Koong Kang - Jung Han Heo 33-40 in 13
Eddy Merckx - Daniel Sanchez 39-40 in 27
The quarterfinals:
Wan Young Choi - Haeng Jik Kim 16-40 in 22
Torbjörn Blomdahl - Lütfi Cenet 24-40 in 17
Nguyen Quoc Nguyen - Duong Anh Vu 40-22 in 18
Jung Han Heo - Daniel Sánchez 40-38 in 22.
Semifinals on Sunday: (11.00 and 13.00 local time):
Haeng Jik Kim - Lütfi Cenet
Jung Han Heo - Nguyen Quoc Nguyen
Cenet beats Blomdahl in 17 innings
Wan Young Choi sent Jaspers and Sung Won Choi home