MARXUQUERA - The Agipi Masters 2013, of which the preliminaries will start from 23 to 25 November this year, will be played by a slightly modified system. Two groups of five battle for four places in the next round. Then four groups of five players compete for eight places in the final phase of the tournament.
Frédéric Caudron and Dick Jaspers reacted enthusiastically to the new group format during the match for the Juanjo Trilles Challenge. ,,There's gonna be an interesting battle in my group with Sung-Won Choi, Dick Jaspers and Choong Bok Lee, but all groups are very tough to survive'', said Caudron. Dick Jaspers: ,,I'm very happy that Raimond Burgman can perform for the first time and it's also nice that Joao Ferreira, my teammate in FC Porto, can play in this famous tournament.''
Torbjörn Blomdahl defends the title in the field of 26 players, coming from thirteen countries: Sweden, Belgium, Greece, Turkey, Korea, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Denmark, Portugal and Vietnam.
The 18-year-old Portuguese Joao Ferreira, the Vietnamese Xuan Cuong Ma, the Dutchman Raimond Burgman and the Korean Choong Bok Lee are the debutants in the Masters.
Torbjörn Blomdahl, Kyung-Roul Kim and Martin Horn, the numbers one, two and three last year, lead the four final qualifying groups together with Sung-Won Choi. The four groups of four (A, B, C and D) with seeded players will be supplemented by four players from the first qualifying rounds.
Javier Palazón, Raimond Burgman, Roland Forthomme, Dion Nelin and Jean-Christoph Roux meet each others in Group 1. Eddy Leppens, Nikos Polychronopoulos, Xuan Cuong Ma, Jérôme Barbeillon and Joao Ferreira play in Group 2.
Two players per group are classified in four groups with seeded players.
Group A (plays from January 25 to 27) plays with Torbjörn Blomdahl, Filippos Kasidokostas, Marco Zanetti, Tayfun Tasdemir and a qualifying player.
Group B (25-27 January) with Kyung-Roul Kim, Dani Sánchez, Jae Ho Cho, Murat Naci Coklu and a qualification player.
Group C (February 1 to 3) with Martin Horn, Eddy Merckx, Jérémy Bury, Lütfi Cenet and a qualifyer.
Group D (1-3 February) with Sung-Won Choi, Dick Jaspers, Frédéric Caudron, Choong Bok Lee and a qualifyer.