VIERSEN - The Swedish team with Torbjörn Blomdahl in a super form and Michael Nilsson with his unbeaten status faces a battle with Spain at the World team championship semi finals in Viersen, tomorrow, Sunday. Dani Sánchez is the frontman in that team who has grown day by day. Ruben Legazpi is the ever-feared number two in the Spanish team, who put up a tough fight with Vietnamese Nguyen to secure the 3-1 win for Spain.
The first semi-final faces two other absolute top favorites for the world title: Turkey (Sayginer/Tasdemir) and the Netherlands (Jaspers/De Bruijn) both advanced to the semi-finals thanks to wins in a Double Scotch. The Dutch beat South Korea 15-12, the Turks won against Greece 15-8.
The Netherlands and Turkey open the final day (Sunday) in the Festhalle in Viersen at 10.00 am, the second match for a spot in the final between Sweden and Spain starts at 12.30. The final between the two winners is Sunday afternoon 16.00.
Torbjörn Blomdahl raced through the World’s arena like a storm wind in his match against South American Christian Hernandez. That happened on the late evening in the encounter between Sweden and Mexico. The Swede started with 5 and 2, then scored a 15 in the third innings when he ran out to an unprecedented 32-2 lead in five innings against the poor Mexican leading player. The slaughter ended after a one-way match in 40-17 after 11 innings. At the other table, Michael Nilsson maintained his unbeaten record at this World event by beating Javier Vera 40-27 in 19.
Dani Sánchez and Quyet Chien Tran (Spain-Vietnam) played a fantastic match as well, in which the Spaniard started with eight and in the fourth inning attacked with 13 to take a 21-14 lead. The Vietnamese leader could hold on with small runs, but finally lost the battle to Sánchez 40-31 in 13 innings. The Vietnamese did an attempt to equalize with a win for Duc Anh Chien Nguyen in his match with Ruben Legazpi. Nguyen dominated the final part, finished first, but saw Legazpi in his great final sprint equalize by four: 40-40.
The Dutch team with Dick Jaspers and Jean Paul de Bruijn paved the way into the semi-finals by beating the strong South Koreans in the quarters. They needed a Scotch Double after JP De Bruijn won his match against Jung Han Heo (40-36 in 20) in the regular matches and Jaspers lost to Haeng Jik Kim by 2 points. The Scotch Double (taking turns with four at the table until one team reaches 15 points first) was won by the Netherlands 15-12.
The Turkish-Greek clash also remained in balance after two games. Nikos Polychronopoulos was the better of Semih Sayginer 40-22 in 18, while Tayfun Tasdemir levelled the score with a win over Kostas Antonatos 40-27 in 25.
The averages of the four winners (four European countries) in the quarter-finals:
Sweden (against Mexico) 2.666
Spain (against Vietnam) 1.818
Netherlands (against Korea) 1.813
Turkey (against Greece) 1,441.
The matches in the semi-finals:
10.00:
Netherlands-Turkey
Dick Jaspers-Semih Sayginer
Jean Paul de Bruijn-Tayfun Tasdemir
Sweden-Spain (12.30)
Torbjörn Blomdahl-Dani Sánchez
Michael Nilsson-Ruben Legazpi.
Dani Sánchez in a fantastic match with Quyet Chien Tran, taking advantage to bring his team to the semi finals