2026-1. Twelve of the greatest matches of our time
Twelve of the greatest matches of our time (1/4).
Recency bias. That’s the term to describe how people will always rate events higher if they are fresh in their memory. If you are a thirty-something tennis player, it’s not easy to see Rod Laver on the same level of greatness as Federer, Djokovic or Nadal. Maybe you are aware of his record, but you’ve never seen him play. Maybe there are followers of this page who have never seen Raymond Ceulemans in action. Well, there’s always YouTube. And it’s worth your time.
I am not free of recency bias, don’t claim to be. I’ve closely followed 3-cushion from the early eighties until the present day, which means that a large part of RC- the legend’s career was before my time. Same goes for Vingerhoedt, Navarro, Hoppe, Robijns, Soussa. My generation (even though they are all a bit younger than I am) is Zanetti, Blomdahl, Jaspers, Sang Lee, Caudron, Sayginer, Merckx, Sanchez and all that followed.
And, in more defense of the fact that the majority of my choices come from this century: the level has gone up significantly. It’s not easy to grade an ancient 50 in 31 over a recent 40 in 7, no matter how good that 50 in 31 may have been on the day.
As a result, my choice of greatest matches will be highly personal, totally unscientific and only presented here as a nice pinata for readers to viciously beat up. That’s okay, be my guest.
12. Haeng Jik Kim – Blomdahl, Sang Lee Memorial New York 2016. Result: 40 – 35 in 9.
Sometimes peak pressure leads to peak performance. And sometimes relaxation brings out the best in players. Haeng Jik and Torbjörn had not played their best event in NY that year, even though their tournament averages (1.734 and 1.856 respectively) were nothing to be ashamed of. They found themselves in a “who cares” playoff battle for 13th and 14th place. The two got along well, and jokes were exchanged during play. Neither player cared about defense, they went for every point even if it was risky. After the first few (very productive) innings, a crowd gathered around the table. The match turned into an exhibition for the connoisseurs, and there was nobody in the room who didn’t love every minute of it.
11. Blomdahl – Dong Koong Kang, UMB World Championship final, Bordeaux 2015. Result: 40 – 40 in 26, TB winning the shootout 2-1.
Blomdahl was the favorite, DKK was the man in form. Tremendous pressure on the Swede, who had won his last world title in 1997! He wanted to end that drought so badly. For a while, it did not look like a historic match at all. DKK built up a lead and TB tried hard but missed fluency. The Korean with the mighty stroke finished it at 40-34 in 26, with TB’s equalizer still to come. 1500 spectators in Bordeaux, but you could hear a pin drop as Blomdahl, suddenly oozing confidence, ran six. DKK now felt the weight of the moment, and he made a silly mistake on his second point of the shootout. TB’s winning point looked semi-spectacular, but the balls were placed so perfectly for this pattern, the shot was (in his own words) almost unmissable.
10. Caudron – Jaspers, Chatillon 2011 French League. Result: 50 – 48 in 13.
For quite a few seasons in the 2010’s, there was no doubt who the two best players in the world were: Jaspers and Caudron. It was the Dutchman who was the more successful of the two, if measured in European titles, world titles and World Cups. But it was the Belgian who had the edge in their head-to-head. Jaspers brought out the best in Caudron, and the two very different playing styles made their encounters only more fascinating. In this league match, Jaspers ran 22 and 10, but still came up short, thanks to a barrage of sevens and eights by the extra-terrestrial. A match like that is about “as good as it gets”.
To be continued.
Twelve of the greatest matches of our time (2/4).
I’ve intentionally avoided the word “best” and used “greatest”. The best matches are those with the highest (combined) averages, but those are not always the ones that stay in your permanent memory. The wow-factor comes into play, the occasion, the nerves. We don’t care about two or three extra innings; we want to feel the adrenaline and the electricity in the room. If the players have to suffer, that only adds to the drama. Matches where you were in the room will stay with you longer than the ones you watched on a stream. Matches with a close finish are more often “great” than a steamroll. However, there are exceptions…
9. Jaspers – Bury, World Championship final, Cairo 2018. Result: 40 – 40 in 21, DJ winning the shootout 3-2.
I’d be a hypocrite if I claimed I was my usual impartial self, during this final. I was rooting for DJ like crazy. In my case, that never has anything to do with nationality, I couldn’t care less. I just like some players more than others, sue me. But what Bury brought to the table was of the highest quality, and he was the first to reach 40. Like TB had done three years earlier, DJ equalized in spectacular fashion, with two of his four shots having absolutely no margin for error. Stone cold perfection, or miss. It was only a four, but it was one of the best innings DJ has played in his life. The thunderous applause for every point must have gotten Bury thinking. The Frenchman is a truly accomplished player, and his game is clever, measured, courageous. But he carries a few annoying habits, and he struggles to find sympathy with the global fanbase. Who is to say that wasn’t the deciding factor, in Cairo 2018? It was one of the tensest finals I’ve ever watched.
8. Caudron – Jaspers, Marxuquera 2012, the Juanjo Trilles Challenge. Result: 600 – 501 in 274.
Not everyone will have heard of Mr. Trilles. He’s a wealthy gentleman from Spain who loves artistic and 3-cushion billiards. So he invited FC and DJ to play a match in his basement, over 600 points, in four daily sessions of 150. Soon there was a buzz around the event, because it would show us who the best player in the world was. And it did. Caudron was just too good for Jaspers that week, he won every session and ended it at 600 – 501 in 274. Of course there were flashes of brilliance from DJ, but FC was simply outpacing him. His ease was intimidating and his stamina was exceptional: it looked like a run of ten didn’t take anything out of him. On the contrary, it invigorated him for the next inning. FC was like an avalanche, and DJ got snowed in.
7. Merckx – In Won Kang, German League, Fehrbach 2011. Result: 50 – 6 in 6.
Maybe I’m stepping out of line here, but I consider EM’s 50 in 6 to be more extraordinary than DJ’s 40 in 4. It’s a silly position to take, because 10 is more than 8.333. But I need you to understand how enormous the difference is between 40- and 50-point matches. Look at the current World Cup averages in the group stage (to 40) and compare those to the averages in the K.O. stage (to 50). There’s a big drop. Think of those last 10 points as “one more lap of the track, but now with hurdles”. More importantly, Merckx’s match was a Beamon jump. The world record to 50 was 9 innings, by three players then, four now. Nobody has ever made 50 in 8. Nobody has ever made 50 in 7. It was an earth-shattering world record. Merckx ran 4-9-26-7-0-4, and there is a non-trivial chance he’ll hold that world record until hell freezes over.
To be continued.
Twelve of the greatest matches of our time (3/4)
“The object of golf is to try and play the least amount of golf.” There is similar thinking in billiards. The free-game guys play to 400 points, but if they do their job right, they end up making 6 tough points and 394 easy ones. It’s not very different in 3-cushion. Nobody solves twenty serious problems in a 3-cushion match; you need these stretches of round-the-tables and natural short-angles. All the top averages in this list were the fruit of position play, and perhaps a little run of the ball. We’re all familiar with that semi-fortunate thin hit on ball three that completely opens up your position. The age-old question is: are you playing well because you hit ball three on the correct side often, or are you hitting ball three on the correct side often because you are playing well? Trust me, there’s a difference. The Caudron quote about that philosophical question is legendary. “I hit the correct side of the third ball more often, because I hit the third ball more often.” Now there’s a man who knows his worth.
6. Quyet Chien Tran – Dinh Nai Ngo, World Cup final in Ho Chi Minh City 2018. Result: 40 – 39 in 15.
This is when Vietnam let the world know that it was now a major force in international 3-cushion. These guys weren’t here to “be talented” or “do well”. They were here to win, and they had all the tools to get the job done. Dinh Nai Ngo is a practice beast, and a formidable technician with the touch of a painter. He did almost everything right, but he was up against a new superstar. Quyet Chien Tran is one of the most gifted position players ever, and he has nerves of steel. Tran is always willing to take a little more risk in order to place the second ball, and it pays off for him. The 40 – 39 was a heartbreaker for Ngo, but a confirmation of the fact that Quyet Chien is one of the greats now. He has won four World Cups already. This match is a showcase of physical and mental discipline and technique, an hour+ of billiard joy.
5. Nelin – Jae Ho Cho, World Championship Randers 2019. Result: 40 – 40 in 11, Nelin winning the shootout 5-2.
Two supreme natural talents met in Randers 2019. Nelin perhaps the ultimate pragmatist, always finding ways to turn hard shots into semi-naturals. There’s nobody in the world better at predicting how balls with counter-intuitive english will behave. Jae Ho Cho, the stylist with his effortless stroke, his elegance, his perfect speed control, the entertaining pace of his game. Pressure was on the Dane, in front of his home crowd. Not many points were made in the first three innings, but then it was as if the roof came down. Dion ran 6, Jae Ho ran 5. Dion ran 8, Jae Ho ran 11. And on it went, run after run they made the game look ridiculously easy. Pugilists would have called it a slugfest. Raymond Ceulemans, sitting in his well-deserved VIP chair, pointed at the score board (40 – 40 in 11) and muttered under his breath: “I guess I should be glad they didn’t put up numbers like that in my day.”
4. Sayginer – Jaspers, World Cup La Baule 2021. Result: 40 – 25 in 6.
Sayginer is so much more than a trick shot artist with a million-dollar smile. He is a former world number one, with seven World Cups to his name. A few records apply to this match. It has the highest combined average in UMB history: 5.416. Every reason to call it the “best” match ever played. It marked only the second time on record that a player averaged over 4 and lost. But most importantly: it showed Semih Sayginer at his very best. We all know what Semih can do with a ball, and that includes things that defy physics. But when he plays 3-cushion at his peak, there is no showing off. There’s control, and lots of it. When everything clicks, SS can play almost perfect billiards. If, at times, he resorts to using his artistic wizardry, he’s firmly convinced that he’s playing the highest-percentage shot. It doesn’t always click. But he is, nevertheless, one of the best players in the world to watch.
To be continued.
Twelve of the greatest matches of our time (4/4).
This is the fourth and last episode of this long walk down memory lane. Thanks for your patience.
Just for fun, here are a few “honorable mentions”, just outside the top-12:
- Blomdahl – Merckx, WC Randers 2019. Result: 40 – 40 in 22, TB winning the shootout 8-7. The match was good, but the shootout was EPIC.
- Ceulemans – “Boston Shorty”, exhibition in Chicago, 1978. Result: 60 – 10 in 26. All after that interview where Shorty, a 0.900 guy, said, days before the match: “I may not beat him, but I’ll show him some American “oil” (defense). See how he does if the game is hard.”
- Jaspers – Efler, Magdeburg, German League 2018. Result: 40 – 0 in 4. Jaspers ran 5-11-2-22. What can you say? Why was there no camera?
- Eddy vd Wart – Sjaak Kluts, Dutch league 4th division, Arnhem 1989. Result: 17 – 17 in 91. My clubmate Eddy lost 17 – 9 in 91, then he ran 8 in the equalizer.
Here’s the serious business of the top-3.
3. Kobayashi – Ceulemans, WC final Antwerp 1974. Result: 60 – 59 in 47.
It almost feels unjust, to only list the worst day in the life of the great Raymond Ceulemans. A resume like no other, and yet the best-remembered, most historic match in his career ended in disappointment. RC had won the world title 11 years in a row, from 1963 to 1973. Surely, he could not be beaten on his home turf, in Antwerp 1974. But Nabuaki Kobayashi was not just any opponent. He was one of the few that could scare Mr. 100. In the final, Ceulemans fought back from an 18-point deficit, grabbed the lead and came at match point: 59-54. He missed, and “Koba” ran the most cold-blooded six of his life. The streak was broken. Ceulemans bounced back, he won the world title again from 1975 to 1980, and again in 1983, 1985, 1990 and 2001, for an absurd total of 21 world crowns. In my view, he is no less of a legend because of the 1974 defeat. Maybe slightly more human. Did you know he is the reigning world champion in the free game? Not kidding, look it up.
2. Jaspers – Blomdahl, EC final in Florange 2008. Result: 3-0 in sets (5.625 for 45 in 8, and 3.000 for 18 in 6).
I’m almost embarrassed to use this anecdote again, I’ve told it in commentary more than once. TB calls his father Lennart after the final. ”LB: How did it go? TB: Well, I had exactly 3.000 average. LB: Congrats then on another European title. TB: No, I lost 3-0.” Jaspers in Florange 2008 was not good, he was insane. DJ ended the first set with a run of 13 in the second inning. He then ran 15 in his first visit to the table in the second set, and made six off the break in the third set. That’s 34 points without a miss, helped by only one break shot. It boggles the mind, and in terms of quality it is a serious competitor against the five 28’s, if not superior to those. He made every makeable point, that goes without saying. But twice in that stretch of 34, he got out of trouble with his signature SLS precision shot. One of those was the hardest variation it comes in: wafer-thin with running english. I firmly believe that every top player has improved on that shot in the past 12 – 15 years, and it’s because of DJ. I wonder which one the Dutchman rates higher: Efler 2018 or Blomdahl 2008? I’ll ask.
1. Zanetti – Caudron, EC Brandenburg 2013. Result: 40 – 37 in 12/11.
The most-watched 3-cushion match ever on Kozoom, and for good reasons. What these two gave us was a spectacle for the ages, drama as it had never been seen in the sport. We all know the facts: Caudron equaled the world record with a majestic run of 28 and still lost the match, even though his average was higher than his opponent’s. Zanetti got into his state of supernatural concentration, found a run of 13 and crossed the line first. He must have aged five years in two hours. I’ve seen him dig this deep on a few occasions, and he’s not acting. He’s visualizing shots and positional outcomes in his mind with a precision that is reached by few, if any. He was phenomenal, but so was Frédéric! It was the Grinder against Mr. Natural. It was irresistible force meets immovable object. The clash of two strong personalities added so much to the battle of skill on the table. Both guys have large egos, which is more-good-than-bad, you expect that from top athletes. Both have a strong fan base; but there’s also a whiff of controversy around them. You can’t NOT have an opinion about MZ or FC. But no matter how you feel about either: this unforgettable encounter in Brandenburg is one of the crown jewels of our sport.