HO CHI MINH CITY - The Korean Chi Yeon Cho was the absolute star player, Hideaki Kobayashi was outstanding in his matches and Jean Paul de Bruijn sprang to live when the elimination was close with a brilliant final run. The run-up to the last qualification day showed a lot of fireworks in the Ho Chi Minh City arena. Chi Yeon Cho finished his matches in 16 and 9 innings, including a run of fifteen. He was the number one of the four-matchpoints standings with 2.400.
The Dutchman Jean Paul de Bruijn and the Vietnamese Quang Hai Dinh battled it out in a flawless thriller. Both players first defeated the Japanese Hiroshi Sasaki, Dinh in 14 innings, De Bruijn in 17. The Vietnamese, with a 15-run in his first match, left De Bruijn behind with a twelve-run. Dinh needed a drawe and had two shots for the win on 29-21. When De Bruijn went to the table for the fifteenth inning, he balanced at the edge of the ravine. The Dutchman showed strong nerves, produced some beautiful points and could raise his cue after he finished with nine: 30-29.
Chi Yeon Cho played the best match of the day against Turk Ali Kemal Gunaydin, which he defeated by a big margin, 30-4 in 9, including a run of fifteen. Tae Kwan Kim, the junior world champion two years ago, ended up in the top five with 1.714. Twelve players achieved the maximum score, from whom German Ronny Lindemann was the twelfth group winner beating Kun Hyoung Park and Ahmet Emam.
Trung Hau Do Nguyen was the last of sixteen winners with one win and 1.814. Dinh Quoc Nguyen was the first of the runners up with three points and 1.071, Quang Hai Dinh second with two points, 2.034 and 15 as the best run. His dramatic loss against De Bruijn made him the poorest loser of the day.
Among the players in the second group with runners-up were Ahmet Alp and Jung Ju Shin. Even deeper on the daily list, without wins: Ji Hu Ahn, Mehmet Goren, Therese Klompenhouwer, Hyung Bum Hwang and Dustin Jäschke.
The sixteen group winners:
1 Chi Yeon Cho 4-2.400-15
2 Hideaki Kobayashi 4-2.068-7
3 Jean Paul de Bruijn 4-1.875-9
4 Tae Kwan Kim 4-1.714-8
5 Hyun Min Seo 4-1.578-7
6 Hoang Hung Ho 4-1.538-9
7 Sung Il Jeong 4-1.395-10
8 Gökhan Salman 4-1.276-7
9 Duy Trun Nguyen 4-1.224-7
10 Sung Ha Yoon 4-1.200-8
11 Hyun-Suk Kim 4-1.176-5
12 Ronny Lindemann 4-1.132-8
13 Birol Uymaz 3-1.818-7
14 Sang Pil Um 3-1.500-8
15 Hyung Mook Lim 3-1.200-9
16 Trung Hau Do Nguyen 2-1.814-10.
The groups for Thursday in the last qualification rounds:
Sung-Won Choi, Birol Uymaz, Ronny Lindemann
Dong Koong Kang, Sang Pil Um, Hyun Suk Kim
Tayfun Tasdemir, Hyung Mook Lim, Sung Ha Yoon
Eddy Leppens, Trung Hau Do Nguyen, Duy Trung Nguyen
Roland Forthomme, Xuan Cuong Ma, Gökhan Salman
Semih Sayginer, Dinh Quoc Nguyen, Sung Il Jeong
Lütfi Cenet, Murat Tüzül, Hoang Hung Ho
Riad Nady, Choong-Bok Lee, Hyun Min Seo
Anh Vu Duong, Can Capak, Tae Kwan Kim
Hyung Kon Kim, Jea Guen Kim, Jean Paul de Bruijn
Adnan Yüksel, Myung woo Cho, Hideaki Kobayashi
Ding Nai Ngo, Javier Palazon, Chi Yeon Cho.
Jean Paul de Bruijn had an excellent finish with nine
Kimchi players making fun with a selfi
Ronny Lindemann after two wins close to the main tournament