The 3-cushion Team World Championships in Viersen/Germany are heading towards the finish line. By now, the four semifinalists who will compete tomorrow have been determined.

Beforehand, the final group stage matches were on the agenda and they brought about some surprises. For instance, in Group A, defending champions Turkey had to settle for a 2:2-draw against Vietnam and thus were eliminated from the tournament. Meanwhile, in parallel, the Spanish duo won 4:0 against Argentina, thus surpassing Turkey in the overall standings.

In Group B, on the other hand, the South Koreans proved to be undefeated, defeating Greece 4:0 today. Beneficiary of this were the US Boys, whose 2:2 draw against Colombia was enough to reach the quarterfinals with a total of three draws.

In the late afternoon, the first knockout matches were scheduled in the Festhalle Viersen. Here, the French team faced the USA. While Jeremy Bury managed to win 40:39 against Raymon Groot after facing a match ball against him, on the American side, Hugo Patino was successful against Mikael Devogelaere. Thus, the Scotch Double had to decide, which ended a bit surprisingly with a score of 15:5 in favor of Groot/Patino from Team USA.

In the second quarterfinal, Vietnam and Belgium faced each other simultaneously. After both teams secured a single each, the doubles had to decide again in this match. Quyet Chein Tran and Phuong Vinh Bao got off to a perfect start with a magnificent 13-point run, taking a commanding lead. Team Belgium with Eddy Merckx and Jozef Philipoom only managed to score three points, while Vietnam reached the target of 15 points in the next inning, thus advancing to the semifinals.

In the evening session, Japan faced last year’s runners-up from Sweden. The Asians had a poor start to the World Cup on Thursday, but have since gained momentum. This continued in the quarterfinals, as both Takao Miyashita (40:25) against Michael Nilsson and Ryuuji Umeda (40:34) against Torbjörn Blomdahl managed to prevail, securing their team a place in the semifinals.

Last but not least, South Korea and Spain faced each other in the last quarterfinal match. In the first single, Jung Han Heo initially prevailed very confidently against Sergio Jimenez with 40:16, while the second single between Myung Woo Cho and Ruben Legazpi developed into an extremely exciting game. Ultimately, it was the Spaniard who prevailed, thus bringing his team into the decisive Scotch Double.

In this, the match was evenly contested until the Spaniards managed the decisive run of six points when the score was 9-9.

Thus, on Sunday at 11:00 a.m. German time, the first semifinal will see the teams from the USA and Vietnam facing each other, while at 1:00 p.m. Japan and Spain will contest the second semifinal. The final is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. CET on Sunday.

PHOTOS & RESULTS:

Group A:
➡️ Turkey – Vietnam 2:2
➡️ Argentina – Spain 0:4

Group B:
➡️ Korea – Greece 4:0
➡️ USA – Colombia 2:2

Quarterfinals:
➡️ France – USA 2:3
➡️ Vietnam – Belgium 3:2
➡️ Sweden – Japan 0:4
➡️ Korea – Spain 3:2