LAUSANNE - On the final day of the Lausanne Billard Masters, 21-year-old Korean Myung-Woo Cho faces three of the most experienced European champions. The final field of eight in the first knock-outs on Saturday night consisted of players representing a total of fourteen world titles and eight nationalities. Dani Sánchez reached the semi-finals with the best match, slightly better than the youngest, Myung Woo Cho. The Korean guy clashed to victory against Martin Horn, who was the only one to remain unbeaten in the preliminaries, 40-25 in 16 innings. Dani Sánchez overran Marco Zanetti in 15 innings (40-19). Dick Jaspers eliminated Tayfun Tasdemir 40-36 in 22 and Eddy Merckx was on the edge of the knock-out against Semih Sayginer, but made one of his feared pursuits to triumph 40-38 in 19.
The Belgian, who defends his title in this Lausanne edition, ran into a run of 8 by Sayginer on a 27-18 score and faced an even bigger gap (35-18). The always unpredictable Merckx started his counter attack with 11 and 5 one inning later, which brought him two points down (34-36) and then from 38-34 with a final run of six to the win. The match at the other table, between Dani Sánchez and Marco Zanetti, had almost the same scenario: the Spaniard ran with a run of 8 to 35-17 in the 12th inning, but Zanetti could not show the same resilience as Merckx did in the same arena and was defeated by Sánchez 40-19 in 15.
Martin Horn had a promising start with 5 and 11 in the first innings (20-13 in 7), but was then overpowered by Myung-Woo Cho, who came along with 23-22 after 36, and at 36- 23, the Korean played with four. Dick Jaspers led from the start, but allowed Tayfun Tasdemir to return into the match at 29-29 and 31-31. Jaspers then made a shot at the win with 8, missing one point from the finish and needed 4 match points before the victory at 40-36.
Myung-Woo Cho plays Dick Jaspers on Sunday, the first semi-final at 10.00, Eddy Merckx plays Dani Sánchez at 12.00. The final is at 14.00.
The final rounds in the preliminaries and the group rankings:
Martin Horn remained unbeaten in his last match and finished with six match points after the 40-20 win over Michel Boulaz in 30. For the second place, Dick Jaspers and Jae-Ho Cho battled it out. The Dutchman was the better, 40-30 in 23 thanks to a run of 11. Jae-Ho Cho's average was high enough, but due to his only two match points, the Korean was the worst of three players on third places.
Group A ranking:
1 Martin Horn 6-1,600-11
2 Dick Jaspers 4-1,646-11
3 Jae-Ho Cho 2-1,816-11
4 Michel Boulaz 0-0,492-4
The top position in Group B went to Eddy Merckx, three players finished on four match points. The Belgian outshone Marco Zanetti in the third round 40-31 in 20 and thanks to this two average match, he finished on top with 1,873 on average ahead of Marco Zanetti with 1,541 and Myung Woo Cho with 1,448. The young Korean jumped to win against Maxime Panaia in his last match 40-31 in 29.
Group B ranking:
1 Eddy Merckx 4-1,873-14
2 Marco Zanetti 4-1,541-13
3 Myung-Woo Cho 4-1,448-6
4 Maxime Panaia 0-1,013-8
Dani Sánchez, who launched his group stage in C with a loss to Semih Sayginer, still finished on top with winst in the two rounds on Saturday. The two Turks closed the group in positions two and three. Therese Klompenhouwer showed her best match in the last appearance and was defeated to the line by Sayginer with a run of 4: 40-36 in 27. Dani Sánchez gained victory vs Klompenhouwer 40-16 in 20 and vs Tasdemir 40-33 in 21.
Group C ranking:
1 Dani Sanchez 4-1,644-12
2 Tayfun Tasdemir 4-1,569-9
3 Semih Sayginer 4-1,530-8
4 Therese Klompenhouwer 0-0,974-6
The group winners:
Martin Horn, Eddy Merckx, Dani Sánchez
The numbers 2:
Dick Jaspers, Marco Zanetti, Tayfun Tasdemir
The two best numbers 3:
Myung-Woo Cho and Semih Sayginer.
Four players eliminated:
Jae-Ho Cho, Maxime Panaia, Therese Klompenhouwer, Michel Boulaz.
Martin Horn was the only one with the maximum score of six match points in the preliminaries. Eddy Merckx was the best on average with 1,873 followed by Jae-Ho Cho, who was eliminated, with 1,816.
The best run in the preliminaries were played by Eddy Merckx (14), Marco Zanetti (13) and Dani Sánchez (12).