Frédéric Caudron's magical mystery tour

SCHILTIGHEIM – The tone has been set at the start of this year: if the Agipi Masters are any indication, we can look forward to quite a year’s worth of play by the international 3-cushion elite. Frédéric Caudron had the magic touch in the second qualification week: he remained undefeated and ruled his group like a king.

The leader of the world ranking played like a genius in his match against Dick Jaspers, a match that will go down in history as one of the most bizarre ever (44-7 turning into 47-50).

The combined level of play was not as high as in the first weekend, when Dani Sánchez (2.469), Tayfun Tasdemir (2.326), Jae Ho Cho (2.313) and Marco Zanetti (2.124) scored extremely high averages as they qualified for the finals.

The tour de force by Caudron, who won all four matches and averaged 2.500 (run of 20), was certainly one of the highlights in the history of the Agipi Masters.

Should that 2.500 be considered a record, after the 2.469 by Dani Sánchez last week?

,,I don’t think so, what do those numbers mean’’, said Caudron. ,,There’s no reward for it, and it will not be in the books.’’

,,I once played 2.700 in the Agipi Masters, up until the final, which I lost to Dick, and then dropped to 2.399. And in Korea I have played an invitational with more than 3.000 over 4 matches. To me, it only means one thing: if you play averages like those, you are going to win matches.’’

There was certainly no lack of tension in this second round. Lütfi Cenet and Martin Horn had to fight to the end for qualification from group C. They kept both world champion Eddy Merckx and Agipi crowd favorite, character player Jérémy Bury out of the finals.

Martin Horn returns to the arena he played so well in last year, with the highest average of the field.

Frédéric Caudron – supposing he can keep playing like this a while longer – will certainly be odds-on to record a first win in his home tournament. In the weeks leading up to the final, he first plays the World Cup in Antalya, then the WC for National Teams in Viersen (with Eddy Merckx) and the Lausanne Billard Masters, featuring Dani Sánchez, Dick Jaspers, Marco Zanetti, Torbjörn Blomdahl and Martin Horn.

Dick Jaspers will accompany the group winner to the final draw of the Agipi Masters. The Dutchman, twice the winner here, needed to beat another former winner (Sung Won Choi) after his painful loss against Caudron. Jaspers played an unspectacular match, but did win by a comfortable margin: 50-24 in 30 innings.

In his last performance, Frédéric Caudron dipped into Agipi director Claude Fath’s piggy-bag once more. The star of the weekend beat Choong Bok Lee 50-19 in 17 innings, helped by two runs: 11 in the 3d inning and 9 in the 12th.

The final score in the two flights:

Group C:
1 Lütfi Cenet 7-1.869-11
2 Martin Horn 5-1.865-10
3 Jérémy Bury 4-1.540-10
4 Eddy Merckx 2-1.830-12
5 Dion Nelin 2-1.374-9.

Group D:
1 Frédéric Caudron 8-2.500-20
2 Dick Jaspers 5-1.970-11
3 Eddy Leppens 3-2.000-18
4 Choong Bok Lee 2-1.400-8
5 Sung Won Choi 2-1.361-7.

The top three in prize-money:
1 Frédéric Caudron, 6950 euros
2/3 Dick Jaspers, Lütfi Cenet, 4825
4 Martin Horn, 4575

Eddy Leppens, (including his session last year) 6075 euros.

The schedule in the first final round:

Frédéric Caudron-Martin Horn
Dani Sánchez-Dick Jaspers
Tayfun Tasdemir-Marco Zanetti
Lütfi Cenet-Jae Ho Cho.