The eight seeded players for the last group stages of the Agipi Masters are known. Martin Horn and Marco Zanetti reached the final after a day with much suspense and high pressure. They join Frédéric Caudron, Dick Jaspers, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Eddy Merckx, Roland Forthomme and Semih Sayginer for the final round, which will be played in the somptuous Agipi auditorium on the 5th, 6th and 7th of march.

Martin Horn was already sure of playing the final after two matches. He kept his motivation in the game with Daniel Sánchez, but lost the control over the match in the ultimate innings. He missed his last four shots and lost 50-39 in 27 innings.

Marco Zanetti took a quick lead against Jean-Christophs Roux (14-6 an 24-12), showed his magnificent technic, but also didn’t forget his defensive game. The Italian crowned his day with the price of qualification and in fact missed only one point in three games when he lost against Martin Horn with 50-49.

The best player overall in the qualification rounds was Dick Jaspers with five matchpoints and an average of 2.419. Caudron totalized 2.344, Blomdahl 2.083 over his three matches. Jaspers also took the biggest pricemoney on one day. He earned 7650 euro’s with his performance in the D-group and ended in the classement before Caudron (5300) and Blomdahl (5200).

The Agipi tournament until now sparkled with respectable levels and many high runs. Dick Jaspers was the most spectacular player with his runs of 20 and 22. The Belgium Peter de Backer played the best match of the qualification. He won in fifteen innings against Duval (50-17).

The players for the main tournament in march are divided in two groups.

Dick Jaspers will play in the group with Martin Horn, Roland Forthomme and Semih Sayginer. Frédéric Caudron is in the group with Torbjörn Blomdahl, Eddy Merckx and Marco Zanetti.

The gladness on the face of Martin Horn contrasted so strong with the disappointment in the eyes of Daniel Sánchez. After two rounds on the final day of qualification for the Agipi Masters, one of the players has his ticket for the next stage, another famous player will not come back.

Martin Horn gathered two wins, first against Marco Zanetti and then against Jean-Christophe Roux. And Daniel Sánchez lost hist two matches, against the same players.
Martin Horn celebrated his second victory with his friends, after he made the last shot. Daniel Sánchez went outside, smoking a cigarette and wondering what went wrong. “I played so well, for weeks and weeks”, he said. “And now it looks like I can’t play billiards anymore. So I’m very sorry. I want to talk about football, not about billiard today.”

The Spanish player, who’s going to defend his title this weekend in a tournament in Madrid, lost against Zanetti with 50-32 in 34 innings. The Italian produced his first high runs in that match, one of eleven, one of ten. And he keeps his chances of going to the next group stage. Martin Horn could finish his match against Roux with a run of eleven, but he missed the last one. “An easy point”, he said. “But I still felt happy about the tenth point, so my focus was gone.”
Jean-Christophe Roux had a bad match after his marvelous win against Daniel Sánchez. He only made 22 points in 28 innings. He will play for qualification a decisive match against Zanetti.

The French champion Jean-Christophe Roux was the very best starter in the first round of the final session in the Agipi Masters. He signed for a big and marvellous surprise in his match against Daniel Sánchez from Spain. The performance was excellent for the 37-year old outsider, who is currently number 36 of the worldranking. He left, with a French kiss for the audience in the Agipi-arena, the number three and former worldchampion far behind his: 50-31 in 22 innings.

The sympathetic Spanish player never got a chance to grow in the match and struggled against a bad feeling on the balls, while Jean-Christophe Roux hit them wit a sensitive touch.
The victory of the French was seen as a little miracle. “I played three or four times against Sánchez, but never won”, he said after the match. He remembered his game in the final of the European championships in 1997 in Mondorf-les Bains. “I got no chance to beat him.”

The start in the Agipi Masters, with adventages of 20-10 (8 innings), 37-21 (17) and 42-49 (19) brought him in 22 innings to the end. And it promises a lot of suspense for the other matches. Martin Horn won on the other table a much more exciting, but a lower quality game against Marco Zanetti. The German and the Italian each had chances to win. Zanetti took the lead in the final, was at 47-36 close to the victory, but saw from his chair that Horn could fight back. Both players missed two matchballs, before the German made the final point in the 34th inning. Zanetti got a chance to equalize from acquit, but he missed: 50-49.