3-Cushion
HURGHADA – Francis Forton would be quite happy to play billiards in the middle of the night, but please don’t schedule his matches at 10 in the morning. The diminutive man from Brussels is still in night-mode then, and he will not hit the balls right, as was the case today against Egyptian.
Two to one in sets was the result, even though the Belgian should outclass that opponent easily. 'Cisse' won the final set 15 – 13, and his average (0.833) was nothing to brag about.
In the evening of the third day, he was wide awake. The new Turkish champion Ahmet Alp was his opponent, he knew he had to win, and he did it like a jetfighter in a dive over the desert.
The speed, the demonstration of force, and in such a fluent style. Francis Forton at his very best, a man capable of teaching even world class players a lesson from time to time.
This one ended 15-8 and 15-7 in 8 and 6 innings: a 2.142 average. It was as good a match as we’ve seen so far in three days.
Barry van Beers on the adjacent table also won, but he had to concede a set to his Egyptian opponent Ihab El Messery: 8-15, 15-11, 15-9, both players averaging 0.833.
Markus Dömer had a nice flight, he had no worries and easily shoved Ben Thyssen and Khaled Salem to the back of the line.
In the first evening session, Arnim Kahofer got through with victories over Jan Hudak and Salah Abdin, and Ragai Henri, who won against Sylvia Eckel and Alfred Nebuda, both times with 2-0.
Therese Klompenhouwer will still be there, today, after her victories over Huub Wilkowski and Richard de Bruin. ,,There is lots of room for improvement'', she confessed. ,,But I am happy to survive the round. I talmost went wrong in the second set, where he missed a matchball. I was able to close it with a three there.
Jack Wijnen outdid himself with two sublime wins: both in the Hyung Bum Hwang and the Pascal Claus match the Dutchman ruled supreme. He finished with the third-best average of the day: 1.428.
Murat Tüzul edged him with 1.434, but the Turk lost one of his matches. As first reserve, he still moved on to the fourth day, because Rui Costa was a no-show.
Peter Ceulemans was the best of the 12 flight winners, with 1.666, followed by Jack Wijnen with 1.428.
The remainder of the list for tuesday:
3 Arnim Kahofer 1.153
4 Markus Dömer 0.895
5 Thomas Andersen 0.750
6 Ragai Henri 0.652
7 Jae Guen Kim 1.360
8 Francis Forton 1.192
9 Barry van Beers 1.014
10 Therese Klompenhouwer 0.900
11 Gokhan Salman 0.875
12 Lars Dunch 1.000
1st reserve: Murat Tüzül 1.434.