World CupHo Chi Minh (Viet Nam)

Torbjörn Blomdahl: not top fit, but a brilliant start

05/25/2018

Published by frits bakker

Torbjörn Blomdahl, back in the World Cup after four operations

HO CHI MINH CITY - The best Scandinavian, Torbjörn Blomdahl (55), looks at the billiard table after a short stop as if he has never been away. He is back on stage, but still far from fit after four small operations. The other, Tonny Carlsen, two years younger, was out of the spotlights for a while in World Cups, but looks better than ever before in his matches against the big guns. The Swede Blomdahl needed a brilliant final sprint to leave the Dane Carlsen one point behind: 40-39 in 16, 2.500 against 2.438. It was one of the most exciting matches on the first day of the main tournament at the World Cup of Ho Chi Minh City.

The Belgian Eddy Leppens was the last of the day who finished, with ten against Jérémy Bury (40-32 in 21). The other Belgian, Frédéric Caudron, was the first day-winner against Dong-Koong Kang 40-31 in 24 innings . The matches in between resulted in a total of eight Asian winners (including four Vietnamese), seven Europeans and one South American, Robinson Morales, for the last sixteen in this World Cup.

Torbjörn Blomdahl, who missed the previous World Cup, was the best winner of the day. Dinh Nai Ngo, winner in the last pre-round, shone with the best start: 18 in the first after Vietnamese Minh Cam Ma's break shot. Robinson Morales outplayed Sameh Sidhom in a fascinating final encounter in the shoot-out, in which the Egyptian missed the break and the Colombian advanced to next round with one. Semih Sayginer disappeared from the scene after he first finished with six against Duong. The Vietnamese equalized with one and was over the hill when he won the shoot-out 3-2.

Torbjörn Blomdahl commented after his match that he is far from top fit. He enjoyed the match with Tonny Carlsen: ,,I was leading 35-15 in 9 innings and still had to sweat for the win. Tonny came back super strong. I could not defend him and his positional playing is really world class. Luckily, I was able to make a great point at three from the end and I was rewarded for that.''

You looked, Torbjörn, as if all is well and the problems are behind.
Torbjörn: ,,Nooo, I'm not good yet. It will take a long time. But I am here, I can play again and hopefully that will help me recover.''
What is not quite right for now then?
Torbjörn: ,,I am still far from hundred percent and lie in bed all days to recover. I have undergone four surgeries, the latest seems to have succeeded. I got an infection after the first operation and then a lot of problems.''
You prefer to keep to yourself which operations?
Torbjörn: ,,Yes.''
Didn't it disturb your focus during the match?
Torbjörn: ,,The game adrenaline was enough to feel almost normal again.''

On the first day, the Vietnamese fans not only cheered for the Swede, also for the victories of Nguyen Quoc Nguyen, Quyet Chien Tran, Anh Vu Duong and Dinh Nai Ngo, all four of whom look good enough to make a bid for the podium. The audience mourned with Duc Minh Tran, who was eliminated by Sung-Won Choi's strong 40-39 in 28. The Asian champion Nguyen Quoc Nguyen seems back from a small setback. The victory over Jae-Guen Kim with 40-33 in 18 looked promising again.

The top ten of the ranking lost six players on the first day: HaengJik Kim, Dani Sánchez, Dick Jaspers, Jae-Ho Cho, Murat Naci Coklu and Sameh Sidhom. Turkish coming-man Birol Uymaz was a bridge too far for Sánchez (40-26 in 23), Dick Jaspers was outplayed by Hyun-Kon Kim, who is in the thirties on the ranking, HaengJik Kim was knocked down by super talent Myung-Woo Cho (40-19 in 24), Sidhom lost to Morales, Coklu to Quyet Chien Tran 40-28 in 22.

The matches for Saturday in the 1/8th finals:

13.00 Vietnamese time:
Caudron-Choi
Tasdemir-Morales
Heo-Myung-Woo Cho
Tran-Hyun Kon Kim

15.00:
Zanetti-Nguyen
Uymaz-Duong
Blomdahl-Ngo
Merckx-Leppens.