BURSA - The Turkish Dutchman Murat Gercek is a triple wheelchair billiards champion in the Netherlands, and he won a tournament in Belgium just weeks ago. His wheelchair alone would make him stand out from the crowd in Bursa, where the World Cup started with qualification matches today. But Gercek adds to that with his enthusiasm around the table, displaying happiness about his every point as if it has won him the match.
He was not on the list of opening day winners though. Three Turks, a German and a Korean make up the top five from today's sixteen flight winners. Murat Gercek won his first match, beating French referee Daniel Garonnat, but he ended second in his group, and in the middle of the large field. Ümit Demircan and Furkan Senel head the day list with 4 match points, 1.363 and 1.333 respectively. Ramazan Durdu, a German league player, ended third ahead of Bora Yayalar and Korean Tae Kwan Kim, the younger brother of Haeng-Jik Kim, himself the junior world champion last year.
Sung Il Jeong was the only player with a run over 10 (a 12), the two best matches took 15 innings (Erkan Arik and Furkan Senel) and Hao Tri Vo and Walter Bossaerts needed the most innings to finish: 30-22 in 60 to the Vietnamese. Two Europeans who looked like a shoe-in for the next round, were held on the edge of their seats for a long time. Dave Christiani, who excelled in the Hurghada qualifications, and Apostolos Balogiannis, one of the stars in the Guri pre-tournament, both had to concede a draw. Aslan Tuncay ended above Christiani in average (1.250 against 1.224) and Vedat Yilmaz was better than Balogiannis (1.034 against 0.983), which made both Turks flight winners and both Europeans runners-up and on the waiting list. Dave Christiani: ,,I must now hope that somebody does not show up on Tuesday, and if that doesn't happen, I'm out.''
Seven Turks were in the winners group, with four Koreans. two Germans, a Greek, a Dane and a Vietnamese. German Ronny Lindemann, known for his super scores on his best days, was eliminated without glory, just like Korean lady Ha Ji Young.
The top sixteen of the first day: 1 Ümit Demircan 4-1.363-5 2 Furkan Senel 4-1.333-7 3 Ramazan Durdu 4-1.250-7 4 Bora Yayalar 4-1.176-8 5 Tae Kwan Kim 4-1.176-6 6 Spiridon Lianos 4-1.176-4 7 Tas Soner 4-1.132-6 8 Im Gwon Kim 4-1.111-6 9 Myoung Gyoo Pak 4-1.034-7 10 Sung Il Jeong 4-0.937-12 11 Muharrem Peker 4-0.882-4 12 Karsten Witte 4-0.833-4 13 Allan Jensen 4-0.800-7 14 Hao Tri Vo 4-0.689-4 15 Tuncay Aslan 3-1.250-6 16 Vedat Yilmaz 3-1.034-6.
Tomorrow (Tuesday), Tonny Carlsen, Glenn Hofman, Jose Maria Mas, Lars Dunch, Omer Karakurt, Duc Anh Chien Nguyen, Hiroshi Sasaki, Barry van Beers and Gülsen Degener will be amongst the players in action.
Umit Demircan (Tur): best winner on opening day
Furkan Senel: best match of the day
Tae Kwan Kim, Haeng Jik's younger brother
Dave Christiani: a win, a draw and first reserve
