Champion
papillon (FRA)
Jérôme Papillon |
When no. 5 seed Jérôme Papillon (FRA) finished 2nd in the first-ever WTC and followed that up with 3rd place in the first 'proper' tournament in early 1999, many of us 'old hands' thought it would be only a matter of time before he won his first tournament. However, despite always being a player anyone sane would wish to avoid in the draw, he 'saved' his first win for four more years, and did it the hard way in one of the most competitive Tantrix tournaments there has ever been. He played quality opposition throughout, not least in an exciting Final where he met the 2001 Champion Ben Polman (NED), the no. 6 seed this time around. France is the only country to have won this Championship twice (Jean-Louis Potier having won in 2000) and the last two losing finalists have been French as well.
Although there were some big shocks in the group phase as always, the established strong players who survived that phase made their experience count in the KO phase and as well as the nos 5 & 6 seeds reaching the Final, it was no. 3 seed Heli Niemi (FIN) who finished 3rd by beating no. 12 seed Zoltan Nemeth (HUN) in a match which, like both SFs before it, went to a tie-break.
Data retrieved from Original Pages
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