Kasidokostas stops triumph march of Jaspers

NICE - The most experienced player and former winner Marco Zanetti will play again the final of the Crystal Kelly tournament in Nice tomorrow. The Italian faces the twenty years younger Filipos Kasidokostas, who survived on a very special way the semifinal against Dick Jaspers, the number one player of the world.

Jaspers, who has eight times winner of the tournament, had focused at the 18th and last edition of Crystal Kelly, which he showed with superb matches so far. But he lost his chance very curiously: he missed his matchball, which he had to play around the table. The ball felt dead into the corner behind ball two, therefor Jaspers remained on 49 caroms.

Filipos Kasidokostas, who began as second, previously came back from 42-30 behind with a run of twelve and grabbed the ultimate chance to defeat Jasper. With a great precision he made his last eight caroms and celebrated his win with a shout of joy.

The finish of both players was pretty incredible: Jaspers made 5, Kasidokostas 12, Jasper 7 (missed matchbal with bad luck), Kasidokostas 8.

Kasidokostas is of the type: what's good, is coming soon. In 2006 he finished second in the final of the world championship in Rotterdam behind Jaspers.  Three years later he earned the crown in Lausanne. Meanwhile, the Greek place has already climbed up to to of the world and Marco Zanetti will have to show all his qualities to keep his young rival behind.

Torbjörn Blomdahl and Marco Zanetti played the other semi-final, in which the Italian took a comfortable lead, scoring a quick run of twelve (third inning). He built up the advantage further and further during the game: 42-20 and 50-31 at the finish. Zanetti is again in the final. He won the event last year by beating Blomdahl in a barrage in the final.

For the last places was already dueled. Frans van Kuijk won in a good match for seventh place 50-27 against Daniel Sánchez (21 innings). The best run of Van Kuijk was ten.

As in 2010, Peter Ceulemans finished on tenth and last place. The two Belgians, Eddy Merckx and Ceulemans, had to fight long. The Flemish battle was finally dominated by Merckx, who won 50-36.