HURGHADA - Two Turkish players in a starring role, Adnan Yüksel who runs a 21 but must go home anyway, the anguished Vietnamese Vinh Ly The who demolishes Roland Forthomme, Marco Zanetti making minced meat out of a local wannabee (40-5), Eddy Merckx taking off like a rocket, Torbjörn Blomdahl running 16 off the break and Jérémy Bury suffering at the hands of a shy Vietnamese.
Just some of the highlights of the first day in the main tournament of the Hurghada World Cup.
Adnan Yüksel was in a chokehold by his younger countryman Birol Uymaz, when he, winner of this tournament two years ago, produced a fantastic run of 21. It was too late though, to repair a backlog of 38-10.
The main losers on day 1?
Dick Jaspers had to bow his head, after he had been severely punished by Tayfun Tasdemir (40-19 in 21 innings). The Dutchman had no feel at all, trailed 29-7 after 12 innings and was taken to the cleaners from there. Belgian Eddy Leppens, who has produced averages between 2 and 3 left, right and centre for weeks and showed tremendous confidence, met with a true "angstgegner": Murat Tüzül. ,,I've played him on four occasions, and lost all four'', said Leppens before the match, filled with revenge. ,,We call an opponent like that "a black beast", and I intend to change that color today.''
Good resolutions, well intended, but nothing came of it.
Jérémy Bury had to go into overtime against the young Vietnamese Quiet Chien Tran, and big Kyung-Roul Kim left the tournament early after his defeat against young Korean Hyung Bum Hwang.
Johann Schirmbrand, who survived all days of the qualifications (eight matches in a row), turned his match in the main tournament against Jung Han Heo into a disastrous end: the German was on the win after a decent match, but missed eight match balls and finally the equalizer from the spots.
Frenchman Bury, who will take a dive in the ranking after his loss, met an imperturbable Vietnamese. A mighty leap that brought him back from 39-30 to 40-40 (runs of 7 and 3) got him into the penalty shootout, but Tran scored a three, and Bury missed his third due to an unfortunate kiss.
The Egyptian sun mostly shone for Turkish players on this first day: Lütfi Cenet who beat Julian Torres from Colombia, Tayfun Tasdemir who overpowered Jaspers and Murat Tüzül who again showed Leppens no mercy: 40-25 in 21 innings, helped by a run of 12 for the Turk.
The Turkish secret?
Torbjörn Blomdahl: ,,They sleep on these Platin tables, which gives them a substantial edge. I was lucky to start off with sixteen against my Turkish opponent, or I would have been in trouble too.''
Dick Jaspers: ,,I have pleaded with my Federation for years, to put up a Platin table, because on all the tournaments we go to, Turkish players walk all over us.''
Dong Koong Kang, the glorious winner of the Korean edition of the World Cup this year, was sent home by Greek Kostas Papakonstantinou, who had survived a qualifying round with barely 0.600 average. Sameh Sidhom had no chance whatsoever against Sung-Won Choi (40-28 in 20).
There were other big guns that did survive: Frédéric Caudron did what he was supposed to do, beat German Christian Rudolph in a convincing manner (40-22 in 17). Filippos Kasidokostas ended his match with a flourish against Vietnamese Duong, by running ten and out (40-32 in 24).
Eddy Merckx played the best match of the day (14 innings), Vinh Ly Thee needed 17 to get to the finish line, as did Caudron and young Turk Birol Uymaz, who makes his debut in a World Cup main tournament.
Sung Won Choi was a promising starter (20 innings)
The matches in the 8th finals are:
Blomdahl-Cenet
Merckx-Heo
Papakonstantinou-Choi
Tran-De Bruijn
Zanetti-Ly The
Tasdemir-Tüzül
Hwang-Uymaz
Caudron-Kasidokostas.