BORDEAUX - Four players of the top four on the world ranking are off for the title after one round in the main tournament. Torbjörn Blomdahl, Frédéric Caudron, Dick Jaspers and Eddy Merckx are not among the last eight players in the evening sessionss at the World championship in Bordeaux for a place in the semifinals. The stars of the last session in the quarterfinals were Eddy Leppens, who beat Dick Jaspers include a run of 18. Dani Sánchez dealt with the Colombian Robinson Morales, Jae-Ho Cho gave Eddy Merckx an early farewell and Nikos Polychronopoulos won thanks to a fantastic final run of eleven against Vietnamese Ma.
Therefore, there are two Koreans still in the race, one Frenchman, one Belgian, one Spaniard, one Italian, one Turk and one Greek.
That is the outcome of two spectacular quarter final rounds, in which Zanetti (11 innings), Jérôme Barbeillon (14) and Dani Sánchez took the spotlights.
Raymond Ceulemans, the record holder world titles and spectator in the VIP stands, made a typical comment after the 18-run of Leppens and the 11 of Polychronopoulos: ,,It seems that this is a World championship in one cushion instead of three cushion.''
Eddy Leppens, who said after his match: ,,I couldn't beat Dick Jaspers for so long time, this is great, to do it in such an important tournament'' attacked when he was 16-8 down in eight with his 18-run to 20-16 in the 9th inning. ,,But it was not easy, because when the tension grew, I was in trouble for a while'', assured Leppens, who won 40-32 (19). Dick Jaspers reacted: ,,He played better, I made too many mistakes to have a chance.''
Nikos Polychronopoulos found his great form again at the perfect moment: when he was trailing 36-29 against Minh Cam Ma. Thanks to his final run of eleven, the Greek showed his feared killer instinct to the 700 spectators in the stands: 40-36 in 25.
Dani Sánchez, with the start speed of the Spanish Formule 1 driver Fernando Alonzo, ran away from Robinson Morales before the break (23-5), continued to 34-6 in ten to finish the job in sixteen: 40-9.
Eddy Merckx had two strong moments in his match against Jae-Ho Cho. That was not enough for a realistic chance to win the match. The Korean was the better at the end and triumphed 40-33 in 24.
Dani Sánchez reached the quarters with a quick start, Eddy Merckx couldn't match in the final part with Jae-Ho Cho
Eddy Leppens ran away with a run of 18 and defeated Dick Jaspers
Dani Sánchez, a start like a Formule 1 coureur
Robinson Morales left after a strong tournament, but had no chance against Sánchez
The matches for the quarterfinals:
18.30:
Semih Saygıner-Jérôme Barbeillon
Marco Zanetti-Haeng-Jik Kim
21,00:
Dani Sánchez-Jae-Ho Cho
Nikos Polychronopoulos-Eddy Leppens