3-Cushion
HURGHADA - His three children were looking in the stands, on center court of the billiardroom Ihab El Messery towered above his opponent and countryman against Zayed Mohamed. Two players from the same city, Alexandria, even from the same club. Ihab (46), who was the number 1 in Egypt for twenty years, defeated his one year younger opponent 15-11, 15-4 (1.200).
Ihab El Messery, an architect by profession, was performing in many World Cups through the years, but now he has been dropped in the ranks, because he had not that much time for his hobby. Of his three children, the two boys, Mohamed and Ahmed, want to follow in their father's footsteps. ,,He is my hero, I want to become better,'' says Mohamed proudly. His young daughter, Yassmin, she smiles shyly.
Mohamed and El Messery are from the town with four big clubs where carom billiards is played. Around 120 players compete in competition or in ranking tournaments. Sameh Sidhom took Ihab's first position in his country, before Riad Nady, both came with a wildcard into the main tournament in Hurghada.
The prestigious Egyptian match at table one was the first to come the finish line in the first round. The two Koreans, Jin Pyo Hong and Dong Hoon Kim, needed much longer to duel for the win. Hong won 2-1. They will face Peter Ceulemans in next matches.
Arnim Kahofer was the best in the first round with a 2-0 win (1.200) over Salah Abdin. Francis Forton had some problems with the table, but dragged himself painfully to a 2-1 victory (15-13 in the third set) against Amr Saad.
Markus Domer had a walk in the park in the first set (15 in 15), but a hard final rush (15 in 26) against Ben Thyssen.
Alfred Nebuda showed from the start how much better he was than Sylvia Eckel (15-4 in 8), then he had a slump and could only close the match at 15-6 in 24).
The Dutch said later: ,,I thought that I had a chance in the first set, but in the second I was out of sorts.''