The magician is back on the billiards table. Semih Sayginer had a marvelous start against Martin Horn (19-0 in three innings), made a high run of eighteen later in the match and finished with a glorious 50-20 in 19. But on the other table the level was even higher! Dick Jaspers played extremely well against Roland Forthomme and won with 50-28 in thirteen innings. Nobody did better in the Agipi tournament until now.
The Dutchman finished as the overall winner of his group. He won his three matches against Sayginer, Horn and Forthomme, with an average of 2.632 and runs of thirteen and ten. And also he is the big winner in prize money. Jaspers took 9500 euro over these three games.
The second qualifier was a surprise. Semih Sayginer had a terrible start against Jaspers, but he grew into the tournament and was on his best in the ultimate match against Horn. Three innings after the breakaway, on a score of 19-0 for Sayginer, it already seemed that the game was over for Horn. The German fought back to 27-17, but then, in the 14th inning, Semih exploded with a wonderful run of eighteen.
The magic is back? “Thank you”, he smiled, but he remembered to his bad start. “I got the right feeling on the right moment”.
So Dick Jaspers and Semih Sayginer go on but Martin Horn, who was so excellent in his first matches, will go home just as Roland Forthomme. The Belgian showed a lot of heart in the last inning against Jaspers. He said farewell to the audience with a run of twelve. “I will be back next year”, he said with a little disappointment in his voice.

The day that the Agipi tournament retriggered with the eight final players, was the day of Dick Jaspers and really not the day of the Belgian players. The 42 year-old dutchman had a wonderful start with victories against Semih Sayginer and Martin Horn. He is almost sure of qualification for the semi finals.
Semih Sayginer stayed in the race, because after his bad start against Dick Jaspers he could beat Roland Forthomme in his second match. So the winner of the match between Martin Horn and Semih Sayginer will join Dick Jaspers in the semi finals.
The match between Jaspers and Horn was decided after both players were going up to 20-20, then Jaspers took the lead with a run of seven (27-21) and two innings later one of ten (41-25), which made him almost sure of winning the game.
There was a very sportive gesture of Martin Horn during that run of ten. Jaspers thought he missed the ninth, the referee announced the end of the run, but from his chair Martin Horn told them the ball was on! The German showed heart and great sportsmanship.
Dick Jaspers reached, like in the qualifications, a very high average: 2.273 in two matches. He finished in sixteen innings against Martin Horn, which made this match so far the best game.
Martin Horn even has a better average than Jaspers now: 2.389. He also recorded the highest run with a score with eleven.

He complained a little, before the match, that his nose was running. ,,But take care, because than I’m on my best on the billiard-table’’, he said.
Martin Horn indeed was the man who was able to explode in the first session of the Agipi Masters-tournament in Schiltigheim. The sympathetic, 37 years old German had a slow start in his match against Roland Forthomme (11-4 behind in 5 innings), but got the perfect feeling on the balls in the 15th and 16th inning, when he broke away with runs of eleven and seven.
He took the lead with 43-27 and then finished with a five and without problems (50-31 in 20 innings).
Dick Jaspers needed some more innings in his match with Semy Sayginer. The game also had an exhausting start with two players constantly on an average near one. The Turkish player, who misses the rhythm of matches, lost his chances in the middle of the fight. Then Jaspers found his usual form and escaped to victory in 28 innings (50-27).
The Dutchman, who was the best in the qualification rounds with runs of twenty and twenty-one, admitted that he was very nervous in the beginning. ,,I want to play on my best here, so there was a little bit of stress’’, he said. The benefit at the end made him laugh and gives confidence for the continuation later in the evening against Martin Horn.