Seoul, Korea- Torbjorn Blomdahl of Sweden, the current #1 ranked 3-Cushion player in the world, defeated Korea's #1 Young Hwa Jeong in a contest of carom and pocket billiards. The two champions played a set of 3-Cushion, 9-Ball, and 8-Ball on live TV with MBC ESPN at Korea's largest amusement park Lotte World.
"Blomdahl is the world's best at 3-Cushion, but I know he plays 9-Ball well too. It won't be easy for me." admitted Korea's Champion Jeong.
Jeong looked confident at the beginning of the 3-Cushion match and took an early lead at 2-0, and later at 8-6. Blomdahl took a bit of time to warm up but then made a 6 point run and held a 14-9 lead. The last few points both players played conservative saftey shots and at 19-12 Blomdahl's favor Jeong made a do or die attempt to score and make a run but missed and Blomdahl finished the match at 20-12 winner.
In the 9-Ball, Jeong started off at the wrong foot with a scratch on the break and Blomdahl switched gears to pool and ran out for 1-0 lead. Utilizing a soft break, Blomdahl made a ball on the break but failed to run out. But jitters showed on Jeong with another miss and Blomdahl took an easy 2-0 lead. Next game Jeong scratched again on the break but this time Blomdahl made the error and left Jeong his first easy win to score 2-1. Blomdahl made a tremendous out in the fourth game and led 3-1. Blomdahl eventually got to the hill first at 4-2 when Jeong made a terrific cut shot on the 6-Ball and made the match at 4-3 and was running out in game #8 and missed a very easy straight in 8-Ball stop shot to tie at 4-4. Instead Blomdahl won the match 5-3.
In the 8-Ball, Blomdahl broke and ran out the first game . The next game was full of misses and Jeong looked unsure and succumbed to the masterful Blomdahl 2-0.
The match was broadcasted live in a 2 hour window with Sweden's Blomdahl proving to Asian audiences his prowess in all games.
"Honestly, I play more pool nowadays then carom. I was following the World 14.1 Championship online. I really want to learn that game well. I ran over a hundred once, but usually I keep getting stuck at 50." chuckled Blomdahl after his win.
