SCHILTIGHEIM - The opening was very tough, the four players could not find grip on the billiard tables and eventually the final sprint was decisive. Dion Nelin and Jean Christoph Roux grabbed the match points in Group 1, in which Javier Palazón had a free round.
Dion Nelin had a very poor start with eight zeros in his match against Raimond Burgman. The match broke loose when the Dane sprinted to 16-10 and 27-16, even ran out to 43-18, but then again had a downhill finish. He won the game 50-35 in 41 innings. ,,But it should be much better in the next game,'' he commented.
Jean Christoph Roux had a better opening against Roland Forthomme with 20-6 and 25-14 in 19 innings. Then he had a slump for too many innings. The Belgian fought back, almost closed the backlog to 39-38 in 32 innings, but at the end Roux escaped to 50-46 in 40 innings.
The Frenchman responded with relief: ,,The match was very hard, but I felt the table perfectly at the end.''
Tonight (20.30) is the next session in this group: Javier Palazón plays his first game against Roux. Raimond Burgman meets the other loser of this afternoon: Roland Forthomme.