ANKARA - The first spectators at the World Cup in Ankara were lucky to see the first patches of the Frédéric Caudron phenomenon this early Monday morning. The Belgian's return to the world stage after his adventure in the PBA was still quite modest on his debut in Ho Chi Minh and shortly after his hip operation. With two wonderful matches on the second day at the World Cup in Ankara, Caudron demonstrated that his top form is not far away. He showed great display of power and class, first swirling past Sergei Jimenez, one of the best Spaniards, 30-5 in 11 innings. And in the evening session he swiped the German Norbert Roestel off the table 30-5 in 12 innings. That was good for 2,608 on average over two performances and a best run of 11. Not only were the scores impressive, Caudron most of all shone with a range of smoothly played, curious caroms. The billiards fans in the World Cups are over the moon: Frédéric Caudron is back.
The Belgian, who for last played in the first preliminary rounds of a World Cup, started against Jimenez with 8 and 11 in the 4th and 5th inning (23-2) and could have finished the match even earlier. The harmless German Roestel was also a sitting duck with 30-5, so that Caudron ended up as the winner of the day, just like on Sunday. Then, on the first playing day, he did that with 1,621 on average, on Monday evening there was a shiny 2,608 on the scoreboard.
In the first two days of the World Cup in Ankara, other players in the preliminaries are in Caudron's shadow. The Turkish ex-PBA player Birol Uymaz was even eliminated without a chance on the first day of play with 0,8 on average. Two other Turks came 2 and 3 after Caudron on the opening day: Furkan Senel with 1,463, Seymen Ozbas with 1,363. The high positions for juniors Amir Ibraimov and Denizcan Akkoca were also striking.
Kim Le Hoang, another one of those striking new Vietnamese, started the second day with a tour de force: he scored a 15 in the match with German Kefeli, but surprisingly Le Hoang lost in his second to Emrullah Basegmez. He therefore dropped to second position in Group D with a super average of 1,727, but was allowed to move up to the next session as the best runner-up.
Frédéric Caudron was the best on the second day ahead of Emrullah Basegmez who scored 1,538, Denizcan Akkoca with 1,500, Takeshima O with 1,333 and Burhan Genc with 1,304. The 16 group winners included 8 Turks, among them Volkan Cimentepe, who gave Birol Uymaz an early exit on the first day.
There were four Dutch on this second day, of whom Reggy Brouwers won his two matches with 1,052 and Jordy de Kruijf was responsible for the striking elimination of Adrien Tachoire.
The most remarkable groups for Tuesday:
Group C with Amir Ibraimov and the Egyptians Riad Nady and Mahmoud Ayman
Group D with Reggy Brouwers and the Austrians Arnim Kahofer and Herbert Szivacz
Group H with Radek Novak, Turgay Orak and Viet Hoang Minh Thon
Group I with David Pennör, Volkan Cimentepe and Jose Miguel Soares
Group K with Volkan Cetin, Fadi Abousaleh and Seymen Ozbas
Group N with Ronny Lindemann, Denizcan Akkoca and Joey de Kok
Group P with Frédéric Caudron, Huub Wilkowski and Lukas Stamm
Emrullah Basegmez, one of the striking Turks on the second day
Another Vietnamese, Kim Le Hoang, to shine: run of 15
Young Turk Ozbas among the winners