LUXOR - Murat Tüzül finished with a run of nine, Ahmet Alp still continues as the revelation of the tournament, HaengJik Kim celebrated his 24th birthday with a victory and Eddy Merckx started sovereignly, with high runs and a flawless win. Two of four Vietnamese are out, already four of five Turks are in the next round: Lütfi Cenet, Tayfun Tasdemir, Ahmet Alp and Murat Tüzül.
The second session of the day marked the end of Marco Zanetti as a title contender. Ahmet Alp, after he came in for Kasidokstas, first bested the former world champion Sung-Won Choi and now the Italian top twelve player after a match that balanced up to 18-18 in 20 and 26-24 in 24, but then turned in the favor of the underdog: 40-31 in 29.
Murat Tüzül also starred in this round, in a match against Quyet Chien Tran, that matched until 31-31. The Turk had a brilliant final shot and finished with nine: 40-31 in 23.
Eddy Merckx dealt with another Vietnamese, the not so well known Trung Hau Do Nguyen, who's coming from the preliminaries. He had no chance against the Belgian giant, who showed his superb position play in two high runs, leading up to 40-15 in 19 .
HaengJik Kim celebrates his 24th birthday and may invite his friends after a remarkable match against Jean Paul de Bruijn. The young Korean started dramatically (9-0 down in eight innings), but then recovered and was 22-13 ahead six innings later. And then he won without being in problems 40-28 in 26.
The next round at 16:00:
Jaspers Polychronopoulos
Heo-Erfan
Caudron-Leppens
Sidhom-Kang.
Murat Tüzül finished with a brilliant nine
Ahmet Alp, the substitute who bested Choi and Zanetti
Eddy Merckx, decent win with great position playing