LA BAULE - The last carom of Sung-Won Choi, the world champion two years ago, closed the last session to finish the preliminaries at the World Cup in La Baule. The twelve group winners and three best runners-up were selected for the main draw. Farouk Barki, the UMB sports director, joined them with the twelve seeded players and wild card holders. The knock-out phase for the sixth World Cup this year is tomorrow, Friday at 12.00.
The most interesting matches in the draw:
Dick Jaspers-Sung-Won Choi
Marco Zanetti-Jérémy Bury
Eddy Merckx-Tayfun Tasdemir
Torbjörn Blomdahl-Quoc Nguyen Nguyen.
The Turk Can Capak, the Korean Jung Han Heo and Turk Lütfi Cenet finished the last day of the qualification into the top three. Birol Uymaz, Dinh Nai Ngo and Murat Naci Coklu were the three best three runners-up for the draw.
The best player on average was Can Capak with 2.162, followed by Hakan Incekara with 2.054 and Tayfun Tasdemir who recorded 2.000. Besides the high level of these three Turks, Hakan Incekara also starred with the highest run of sixteen. The best-known players who missed the main draw were Semih Saygıner, Quyet Chien Tran, Hyung Bum Hwang, Ruben Legazpi, Hyung Kon Kim, Eddy Leppens, Adnan Yüksel and one of the best players in the preliminaries: Antonio Montes.
The summary of the final qualification groups:
Group A:
Tayfun Tasdemir plays a magnificent last match against Rui Costa (40-22 in 15) and repairs what he lost in his first match when the Turk was beaten by Jung Wan Lim in a thrilling final (40-38 in 24). Tasdemir takes the group win with exactly 2.000 average.
Group B:
Ruben Legazpi has a big lead in his match against Jung Han Heo and seems to be on his way to victory. The Korean, who takes a long break, comes back strongly and has the much better finish. He beats the Spaniard 40-38 in 24 and secures the group win (four match points, 19.51).
Group C:
Myung Woo Cho opens with a strong win over Ji Hun Anh (40-16 in 17), Murat Naci Coklu goes down against Anh and needs a stunning final match to survive. That happens in his match against the young Cho: Coklu wins in his great style, 40-26 in 20. The accountants achieve a minimal difference: Cho wins the group averaging 1.783, Coklu finishes second 1.744.
Group D:
Three players with two points are judged on the average. Hakan Incekara, who loses his first match against Quyet Chien Tran, continues with a nice victory over Ngo Dinh Nai (40-34 in 17). Quyet Chien Tran, tenth on the world ranking, closes his performance on third place and misses the main event. Incekara confirms his form of the previous day and ends on top of the group with 2054.
Group E:
Pedro Piedrabuena shows his relief after he scores his last carom against Birol Uymaz. The Turk answers with two in the equalizer, but it's not important for the group win. The American recorded three match points and 1.600, much better than Uymaz with three points and 1.379, which is good enough for the qualification. Anh Vu Duong, a Vietnamese veteran, is send home with two losses.
Group F:
Lütfi Cenet is barely threatened in his matches against the Koreans Jae Guen Kim and Hyun Woo Kim: two wins in 22 and 26 innings. The Turkish world class player, right back from a weekend in the bundesliga, where he is leading with his Münich team, starts the main tournament with a lot of confidence.
Group G:
Quoc Nguyen Nguyen opens with a tight loss against Kostas Kokkoris, who also lost his first against Hyung Kon Kim. The Vietnamese Nguyen proves to be the best finisher: he defeats Kim 40-23 in 19 innings and becomes group winner.
Group H:
The two Turks Adnan Yüksel and Ahmet Alp, who play a draw against each other, are outplayed for the main prize. Xuan Cuong Ma defeats them both in 28 and 25 innings. Yüksel stumbles on two caroms of the finish at 40-38.
Group I:
With three Koreans a very interesting group, in which Sung-Won Choi's routine seems decisive. Hyung Bum Hwang, who lost twice, is still suffering a minor form. Choi triumphs in 27 and 30 innings, with 40-32 and 40-33.
Group J:
Can Capak has a glorious day with smooth wins in 16 and 21 innings. Thus he keeps his rivals in this group, Minh Cam Ma and Riad Nady on a distance, also with his average over two matches: 2.162.
Group K:
The two favorites for the group win, Semih Saygıner and Eddy Leppens, run into the Japanese Hideaki Kobayashi, who beats Leppens in a hard fight (40-39) and loses to Saygıner (40-30) . The Turk concludes his tournament with a final run of eight, but finishes only third in the group. Eddy Leppens comes one carom short for the group win: Kobayashi records 1.627, Leppens 1.612.
Group L:
The Korean Chi Yeon Cho outplays both Christian Rudolph and Antonio Montes and is the well deserved winner. His two opponents open the fight with a draw, then Cho grabs his chance for wins in 18 and 32 innings.
Sung-Won Choi won the flight with three Koreans and is facing Dick Jaspers in the main
Pedro Piedrabuena: showed his relief after his last carom
The draw for Friday, October 28th:
12.00:
Frédéric Caudron-Xuang Cuong Ma
Chi Yeon Cho-Jérôme Barbeillon
Haeng Jik Kim-Murat Naci Coklu
Sameh Sidhom-Javier Teran
14.00:
Jae Ho Cho-Dinh Nai Ngo
Marco Zanetti-Jérémy Bury
Lütfi Cenet-Pedro Piedrabuena
Dick Jaspers-Sung-Won Choi
16.00:
Eddy Merckx-Tayfun Tasdemir
Roland Forthomme-Hakan Incekara
Dani Sánchez-Zayed Mohamed
Dong Koong Kang Myung Woo Cho
18.00:
Nikos Polychronopoulos-Hideaki Kobayashi
Jung Han Heo-Birol Uymaz
Can Capak-Choong-Bok Lee
Torbjörn Blomdahl-Quoc Nguyen Nguyen