SHARM EL SHEIKH - Glenn Hofman's explosion of power eventually was the highlight of the day. The World Cup in Sharm El Sheikh saw an unlikely come-back from the Dutch player at the end of the third day. Being in a hopeless position, the ex-PBA player fought his way back to win with a top run of 14, which in the end was still good for a draw against Vietnamese Vin Ly Dao. The Dutchman advanced to Wednesday's qualifiers, the Vietnamese was unhappily eliminated. On a day with many curious matches, Hofman and Dao's match was the most miraculous fight. The Dutchman, already entered through the back door as a reserve on Monday, faced a hopeless mission against Van Ly Dao, an upcoming star in Vietnamese billiards. The mission was win or draw for both players, but Hofman started very poor and was 15-2 early in the match and 23-6 a little later. The match was done, as it looked like, but suddenly the Dutchman got wings with 3-2-1 and the amazing attack with 14 for a 27-26 interval. Then the score went to 29-28, Dao made his third ball for the win, but Hofman was able to equalize with 2: 30-30 in 18 innings.
The little miracle had happened. Glenn Hofman saved his tournament and was even the best player in average returning tomorrow (Wednesday) for the final qualification with 12 groups of three, from which 15 players qualify for the final gala of the 32-player World Cup final days.
The third day in Sharm El Sheikh was technically disturbed by a major internet outage in Egypt, which prevented many thousands of viewers from watching the matches. The organizers hope that this glitch will be fixed by tomorrow.
What a wonderful tournament day it was especially thanks to Glenn Hofman and Van Ly Dao on this third day with 48 players for 16 group wins. The start in Group A was already a spectacle, as Robinson Morales was able to qualify against Serdal Bas, who started with a run of 10 and then registered 10 times nil in 19 innings (30-16).
Vietnamese Minh Kiet Doan had a formidable start against Jeffrey Jorissen (30-10 in 12), but before that had come up against strong Korean Hyung Kon Kim, who later also played Jorissen out of the tournament with 30-23 in 16.
Burak Hashas escaped elimination twice, but first sprinted to a win against Gulbay and in his second game saw Portuguese Soares miss for the equalizer. Vietnamese TTT Nguyen sidelined Dustin Jäschke, after in another group Lukas Stamm had done the same to Turgay Orak.
Sam van Etten saved his mission as the first Dutchman out of six on this day. The young player was beaten by Gökhan Salman (30-28 in 22), but the Turk lost to Malkadi, making Van Etten the group winner with 2 points and 1,208.
Two Dutchmen and one Belgian excelled in super bad starting shots. Joey de Kok was 17-0 behind after six innings against Emrullah Basegmez (final score 30-22 in 20). Huub Wilkowski faced a 17-1 deficit against Omer Karakurt (final score 30-16 in 23). Peter De Backer was played to 12-0 down by Volkan Cetin after 9 zeros from the start, later came out ahead 25-22, but eventually lost 30-28 in 38.
TTT Nguyen was the best of the group winners with 4 points and 1.578 ahead of Ja In Kang (1.428), Gongordu (1.363) and Kim (1.333). Nice for statistics, Muammer Rahmet, who finished fifth and can qualify for a main drawt for the second time in his career, won his group against Lindemann and Awwad. Volkan Cetin was last in average but placed with four match points. Glenn Hofman the highest of the entire field (1.621), but goes on thanks to his miraculous escape.
The twelve groups for the last day of qualifications:
Poule A: Glenn Hofman, Volkan Cetin, Nikos Polychronopoulos
Poule B: Ahmet Alp, Mehmet Goren, Myeong Jong Cha
Poule C: Emrullah Basegmez, Omer Karakurt, Berkay Karakurt
Poule D: Sam van Etten, Lukas Stamm, Mashhour Abu Tayeh
Poule E: Roland Forthomme, Rui Costa, Robinson Morales
Poule F: Mohamed Abdin, Tarik Yavuz, Chang Hoon Seo
Poule G: Fadi Abousaleh, Burak Hashas, Hugo Patino
Poule H: Hong Chiem Thai, Muammer Rahmet, Arnim Kahofer
Poule I: Gwendal Maréchal, Javier Vera, Hyeong Kon Kim
Poule J: Ruben Legazpi, Yavuz Gungordu, Peter Ceulemans
Poule K: Gerhard Kostistansky, Ja In Kang, Thanh Luc Tran
Poule L: Bong Jo Hwang, TTT Nguyen, Tolgahan Kiraz.
The day ranking on Tuesday:
- TTT Nguyen 4-1.578-5
- Ja In Kang 4-1.428-7
- Yavuz Gongordu 4-1.363-9
- Hyeong Kon Kim 4-1.333-9
- Muammer Rahmet 4-1.333-5
- Burak Hashas 4-1.304-7
- Tarik Yavuz 4-1.250-7
- Lukas Stamm 4-1.200-5
- Robinson Morales 4-1.176-7
- Mehmet Goren 4-1.034-5
- Omer Karakurt 4-1.132-8
- Glenn Hofman 3-1.621-14
- Volkan Cetin 4-0.789-6
- Ahmet Alp 3-1.000-5
- Emrullah Basegmez 2-1.350-9
- Sam van Etten 2-1.208-7