LUXOR - The always treacherous break-off shot did Sung Won Choi in, it kept the Korean out of the Luxor main tournament. His battle with Ahmet Alp was decided at the finish line, both players knowing the winner would be in the knockout stage of the World Cup. The Turk, replacing Filippos Kasidokostas after Tuesday evening's drama, made his last point when Choi was on 37. He still had the equalizer, but missed from the points.
The final judgment day of qualifications, with big name players like Semih Sayginer, Murat Naci Coklu, Nikos Polychronopoulos, Hyung Bum Hwang, Jung Han Heo, Lütfi Cenet, Quoc Nguyen Nguyen Jérémy Bury and Pedro Piedrabuena in the arena of the Sonesta hotel in Luxor, turned into a battle of kill or be killed.
Tension rose high in these flights, like in the group where Polychronopoulos had a poor start but recovered well with a quality win over Vietnamese Xuan Cuong Ma, Javier Palazón survived despite a loss against Sayginer, and Adnan Yüksel was too up and down to stay in. Murat Tüzül also began with a loss (against Korean Kwang Yeol Park), but he put it right when he face Dong Koong Kang, on paper a much stronger Korean. The flight was won by Kang anyway, but Tüzül came along through the back door. Sung-Won Choi will not return, and after his glorious year as world champion, he will fall further down on the world ranking.
The Turkish victory march was impressive, even where it was brother against brother. Murat Naci Coklu and Lütfi Cenet came out on top, and Ahmet Alp eliminated Choi. Two other Koreans were on top of the day ranking, Hyung Bum Hwang and Jung Han Heo had four match points, as did Jeremy Bury who scored a 1.632 average.
Jean Paul de Bruijn, who is a great billiard player but he does not always show it, finished off a Korean in form, Jae Guen Kim. And Jérémy Bury was invincible in his flight with two dabgerous Vietnamese players: Trung Hau Do Nguyen and Anh Vu Duong. Pedro Piedrabuena had a fine finish, after he played a draw in his first match.
Here's a summary of the twelve flights:
Group A: Murat Naci Coklu and Birol Uymaz battle it out on a knife edge, Coklu winning by a single point. Unlucky Uymaz then beats Vietnamese Ngo, also by a single point, but the group win goes to Coklu who sees off the Vietnamese, 40-23 in 24.
Group B: Hyung Bum Hwang is merciless, he scores victories in 21 and 28 innings, beating Mohsen Fouda and Minh Cam Ma. The diminutive Korean runs an 11 and a 10, he goes into the main draw as best winner.
Group C: Three players end on two match points. Murat Tüzül makes the best impression, with his win over Dong Koong Kang (40-25 in 15, the best match of the day), but his loss against Kwang Yeol Park puts him on the bench. As one of the best losers, he may return tomorrow after all.
Group D: Jung Han Heo has a slow start, but he plays exceptionally well against Kostas Papakonstantinou, and wins that match (it was 22-22 halfway) with 40-29 in 16 innings. He wins his group and averages 1.632.
Group E: Ahmet Alp, happy to even be in this round, beats El Messery, then faces Sung-Won Choi in the decider. The Turk wins 40-37 in 34, and shows his happy face to the Kozoom camera's.
Group F: Two Turks play a match for prestige: Lütfi Cenet has the cooler nerve and beats Gökhan Salman 40-37. In his second match, Cenet leads Egyptian Regay Henry 24-0, to win the match 40-11 in 28.
Group G: Semih Sayginer can't get anything going against Adnan Yüksel, who controls the match and wins 40-26 in 27. After Sayginer defeats Palazón 40-33 in 22, the groups opens up again, but the Spaniard beats Yüksel and wins the group on average: 1.460 with Sayginer on 1.346.
Group H: Quoc Nguyen Nguyen goes easy on Jin Pyo Hong (40-27 in 36), but then strikes hard against Choong-Bok Lee: 40-21 in 23.
Group I: Nikos Polychronopoulos needs a little miracle to win his group, after he loses a poor match to Can Capak (40-30 in 27). As so often, he shows an entirely different face in his second match, when he sends home Xuan Cuong Ma with an emphatic 40-19 in 17.
Group J: Pedro Piedrabuena starts by grinding out a 30-inning draw against Arnim Kahofer, but he secures his group win against Dionisis Tsokantas, beating the Greek 40-26 in 20.
Group K: Jean Paul de Bruijn has a poor start when he plays Emrullah Basegmez, whom he even hands a chance to escape. The Dutchman gets away with it when the final score is 4-39 in 46 innings. De Bruijn then shows his class when he beats Jae Guen Kim 40-24 in 20.
Group L: Jérémy Bury puts in two strong performances, first against Anh Vu Duong (40-33 in 31), then against Trung Hau Do Nguyen (40-27 in 18). The Frenchman enters the main draw as a serious contender.
The three best losers to get into the main draw: 1 Xuan Cuong Ma 2-1.552-7 2 Trung Hau Do Nguyen 2-1.488-7 3 Murat Tüzül 2-1.442-8.
Murat Tüzül defeated the strong Korean Kang and advanced as third reserve for the main draw
Nikos Polychronopoulos had a poor start, but a great finish of the day
Vietnamese Quoc Nguyen Nguyen in his typical pose
Jérémy Bury, promising performance in his matches with two Vietnamese players
Dong Koong Kang came to the main draw as the twelfth of best winners
Former world champion Sung-Won Choi is out after a loss against Ahmet Alp
The Egyptian player Regay Henry, suffering a 24-0 backlog against Lütfi Cenet
The day ranking on Wednesday:
1 Hyung Bum Hwang 4-1.632-11
2 Jung Han Heo 4-1.632-8
3 Jérémy Bury 4-1.632-6
4 Murat Naci Coklu 4-1.403-9
5 Quoc Nguyen Nguyen 4-1.355-7
6 Ahmet Alp 4-1.311-8
7 Lütfi Cenet 4-1.230-8
8 Jean Paul de Bruijn 4-1.212-4
9 Pedro Piedrabuena 3-1.600-9
10 Nikos Polychronopoulos 2-1.590-8
11 Javier Palazón 2-1.460-6
12 Dong Koong Kang 2-1.444-8.
The three second best for the main tournament:
1 Xuan Cuong Ma 2-1.552-7
2 Trung Hau Do Nguyen 2-1.488-7
3 Murat Tüzül 2-1.442-8.
Murat Naci Coklu bested his countryman Birol Uymaz in a tough fight (40-39) and then advanced in his second match against Ngo.
The main draw:
Matches for Thursday 12.00 uur:
Blomdahl-Cenet
Hwang-Chi Yeon Cho
Jae Ho Cho-Nady
Tasdemir-Ma
14.00:
Tran-Tüzül
Zanetti-Alp
HaengJik Kim-De Bruijn
Merckx-Do Nguyen
16.00
Jaspers-Polychronopoulos
Heo-Erfan
Caudron-Leppens
Sidhom-Kang
18.00:
Forthomme-Palazón
Bury-Garcia
Coklu-Piedrabuena
Sánchez-Nguyen