The glorious start of Jef Philipoom in his match against Eddy Merckx was not awarded later in the game. He lacked a little luck at the end and eventually lost 2-1, like yesterday in his second match against Tayfun Tasdemir.
Jef Philipoom has left the building with his head high, a sense of resignation and an average of 1.511, which brought him after the preliminaries to a fifth place, ranked after Frédéric Caudron, Jérémy Bury, Eddy Merckx and Murat Naci Coklu. ,,We realized that we obviously had a tiny little chance to survive with BC Elversberg'', said Philipoom before leaving Agipi. ,,I do believe that we had some chances, especially in the match against Clichy. I won the first set against Eddy Merckx, had a match point in the second, but Eddy took the win and had a few lucky shots at the end of the match. I can't say that it was bad luck for me, because I had to finish the game myself.''
Klaus Bösel, third man in his team, surprised against Caseta Nova with a win against Ruben Legazpi yesterday. ,,We still had a small chance to seed for the semi finals, but then we had to win all four matches´´, Philipoom said, after leaving for his wife and child, who celebrate a long weekend at the camping in Zeeland. The Belgian, number thirteen in the world ranking, just wanted to look back, before stepping in his car, at a few annoying months in his career.
,,The problems and cancellation with the Worldcps in Las Vegas and Mexico, the charges we haad made for the ticket and still have´nt received. The cancellation of my participation in the World championship in Peru, because the Belgian federation doesn´t want to pay for the players and for me i´ts to expensive to pay it myself. But of course, it was a great opportunity to come back into the top twelve of the ranking.''
The peak year, in which Philipoom won the World Cup in Hurghada and was second in Sluiskil, is not forgotten. The Belgian showed that year that he´s still a great three cushion player.
Torbjörn Blomdahl said that year: ,,Jef is one of the best players in the world when it comes to playing position.'' A better compliment the former world can not imagine.