VEGHEL - The prelude to the World Cup in Veghel is two days underway in an arena where the organizers are gradually welcoming more spectators and the quality of players is rising to greater heights. Jean van Erp, the home player who lives less than 10 kilometers from the venue, was Monday's day winner with 1.875 average. The Dutch continue to dominate after Jerry Hermans was the best in the opening round on Sunday. And speaking of those Dutch, they survived the second day session with five players, on the day that leading roles were for Jean van Erp (1.875), Barry van Beers (1.621), Stef van Hees (1.621), Tonny Carlsen (1.538), Jerry Hermans (1.500), Hyung Kon Kim (1.500) and Jérôme Barbeillon (1.428).
The day's winners on Monday were split between five Dutch places, four Koreans, two Danes and one player from Belgium, Greece, France, Japan and Colombia.
Therese Klompenhouwer, who with her excellent form could also have high expectations, stepped into the tournament with a nice victory over German Andreas Schenkel (30-25, 1.304 on average), but was facing too early a former world class player, Dane Tonny Carlsen, who was too strong for the women's number one: 30-15 in 20 innings.
The other of the two female players in this World Cup in Veghel, 18-year-old Korean Ha Eun Han, did pass qualification for the second day by two wins: against German Gurhan Kabak and Turk Hakan Celik with a total average of 0.833.
Harrie van de Ven was one of the notable losers of the day for the Netherlands. The 62-year-old Brabant player started with a strong match against German Norbert Roestel. ’’My opponent started with 4, I answered with 15, so we went into the break with averages of 15.00 and 4.000. I guess that hasn't happened many times before.'' The Danish/Dutch clash between a veteran (62) and a junior (21) ended in an exhilarating final: the Dutchman missed a bankshot by a millimetee, the Dane almost scored from the same bankshot position, winning 30-28. Mortensen continues as the group winner with 1.016, Van de Ven is out with 1.414.
Greek youngster Christos Falangas (22) is playing a strange World Cup. On the day of the World Cup start, he was listed as second reserve. Yet he travelled to the Netherlands with Alex Tremoulis, another young player, at random. Falangas was allowed to take the place of Tom Slikker to his delight, became group winner on the first day and repeated that stunt on the second day. As a result, Christos is still in the arena on the third day of play on Tuesday.
Most notable last games on late Monday night:
X Barry van Beers beats Maxime Panaia 30-21 in 21
X Jean van Erp defeats Korean Van Ly Dao by 30-21 in 14. The Dutchman finishes with 1.875, the Korean advances to the next round with 1.758
X Ha Eun Kim beats Hakan Celik by 30-14 in 32
X Emilio Sciacca wins against Glenn Hofman 30-26 in 21, but Hofman is group winner on average
X Dimitrios Seleventas is the outstanding winner against Alexander Salazar, the Colombian is group winner on average
X Jerry Hermans is also winner against Paolo Andrade (30-24 in 20) after he beat Dave Christiani (30-19 in 20).
X Atsushi Kiyota is the last winner of the day: he beat Kay de Zwart 30-13 in 28.
The day's ranking on Monday:
- Jean van Erp 4-1.875-9
- Barry van Beers 4-1.621-6
- Stef van Hees 4-1.621-5
- Tonny Carlsen 4-1.538-7
- Jerry Hermans 4-1.500-8
- Hyung Kon Kim 4-1.500-7
- Jérôme Barbeillon 4-1.428-8
- Ye Sung Jeong 4-1.276-7
- Lukas Mortensen 4-1.016-7
- Atsuhi Kiyota 4-1.000-7
- Ha Eun Kim 4-4-0.833-4
- Wilco van Wijk 4-0.810-6
- Christos Falangas 4-0.779-4
- Glenn Hofman 2-1.435-6
- Alexander Salazar 2-1.300-8
- Jeong U Park 2-1.083-10
Van Ly Dao moves up as best number 2 for Thomas Andersen who can't show up.
Most known players in Tuesday groups:
Poule C: Glenn Hofman, Mahmoud Ayman, Jose Miguel Soares
Poule D: Huub Wilkowski, Christos Falangas, Turgay Orak
Poule E: David Pennör, Wilco van Wijk, Rui Costa
Poule F: Ha Eun Kim, Yasser Shehayeb, Mehmet Goren
Poule G: Burak Hashas, Atsushi Kiyota, Robinson Morales
Poule J: Jérôme Barbeillon, Joey de Kok, Ja In Kang
Poule L: Kostas Kokkoris, Jerry Hermans, Raymon Groot
Poule N: Volkan Cetin, Stef van Hees, Cengiz Karaca
Poule O: Barry van Beers, Kevin Vasseur, Jose Maria Mas
Poule P: Jean van Erp, Ronny Lindemann, Ragay Henry.
Barry van Beers in top three for the Netherlands
Tonny Carlsen outplayed Therese Klompenhouwer
Belgian player Stef van Hees