BINH THUAN - The match cast its shadow ahead, because Torbjörn Blomdahl and Dick Jaspers have fought so many heroic fights in the past. At the World championship in Vietnam, this Friday, they met in the first knock-outs with 32, not only was the prestige at stake of two huge champions, but also an important place in the next round of this Championship. The start of the top match was laborious, difficult, mostly tactical and sometimes defensive. The mediocre score was 8-7 in 10 innings, the match went to 18-18 in 20, six innings later, finally came Jaspers' attack: first with 14 in the 26th inning, right after that a 7 for a 47-31 interval score. The finish was in sight, three innings later Dick Jaspers triumphed 50-37 in 29 innings.
The round of 16 continues on Saturday with five Vietnamese, two French, two Koreans and seven players from different countries with a total of seven Europeans. Marco Zanetti was the best in average with 2,941, Myung Woo Cho came out of this round with 2,380, Thanh Luc Tran with 2,083, Eddy Merckx and Jérémy Bury with 2,000, the highest runs came from Dick Jaspers and Jun Tae Kim with 14. The Korean, by the way, was eliminated by Mikaël Devogelaere.
The scoreboard was relentless on this day, the World championship day was ruthless for two American players. Italian Marco Zanetti (two-time world champion) played at the world stage in Vietnam against American Hugo Patino and put relentlessly hard figures on the board: 41-11 in 9 innings. Belgian Eddy Merckx (two-time world champion) played against American Raymon Groot and shone with mind-boggling figures: 37-3 in 17. These were the snapshots on the first knockout day where the Vietnamese (Nguyen, Quyet Chien Tran, T.L. Tran, Duc Minh Tran and Thai) prevailed and the Korean delegation was halved.
Jérémy Bury pulled off amazing stunts in the most high-level session of the day. The Frenchman found his brilliant form in the final part against Phuong Vinh Bao, the outgoing world champion. The Frenchman was trailing 44-33, counter attacked with 9 and was ruthless with the final, winning 7: 50-47 in 25/24 innings.
The Vietnamese home crowd dived back and forth between hope and despair in five minutes on the eve of knockout day. They lost the world champion Bao (due to Bury's final sprint) and at the other table saw the other top Vietnamese player, Quyet Chien Tran, on the edge of the abyss. The tension was palpable in the stands when Berkay Karakurt missed his match ball at 49-47. The cool Vietnamese heroically righted himself and scored the three caroms to save his tournament: 50-47 in 25.
Together with Jérémy Bury, the French also have Mikaël Devogelaere over, who again surprised with a strong final sprint: he beat Jun Tae Kim 50-42 and faces Eddy Merckx on Saturday. Duc Minh Tran was also a standout winner, when he got no fewer than eight match balls in the final session and still ended up beating Martin Horn 50-45 in 43 innings.
Jose Juan Garcia started the day as a strong winner against Haeng Jik Kim (50-31 in 19), Brian Knudsen defeated David Pennör in the Scandinavian clash (50-39 in 30/29) and Tolgahan Kiraz came out of a long dip against Daniel Morales (21-1 behind) to finally still win 50-48 in 30 innings.
Matches among the best 16:
Saturday, Vietnamese time:
11.00:
Merckx-Devogelaere
Garcia-Nguyen
Knudsen-Cho
Sidhom-Heo
13.30:
Bury-Quyet Chien Tran
Zanetti-Thanh Luc Tran
Jaspers-Kiraz
Duc Minh Tran-Thai
Colombian JJ Garcia, starting the day as one of the best
Jérëmy Bury showed his skilss in the end and bested the world champion Bao
Tolgahan Kiraz, terrible start, winning finish
Dick Jaspers was the better of his old rival Torbjörn Blomdahl
Eddy Merckx, comfortable win, now vs Devogelaere in the best 16