ANTALYA – Which 16 players will have their names put in Farouk Barki’s hat this evening, for the main tournament draw? The outcome is near, just a few good evening matches to be played: Javier Palazón against Martin Horn to name just one.
The German had a narrow escape in his match with Michael Nilsson, who had been painfully defeated by Palazon and was left with slim chances. The Swedish champion started off flawlessly against Horn (22-12 in 10), but was quickly pegged back and then trailed 34-32.
The finish was exciting: Michael Nilsson made a last-ditch effort from 36-35, scored a few beautiful points, but got kissed out on the last one. Horn took his last chance and won the match 40-39.
Roland Forthomme had no walk in the park against Kostas Papakonstantinou, who headed the rankings on wednesday. The Greek was ahead for a long time, saw his opponent counter with a 7 from 25-20, and capitalize on that with big strides to the finish: 40-28 in 19 innings.
Forthomme will play Javier Teran this evening, and he also has a win over Papakonstantinou under his belt (40-23 in 21).
Dave Christiani has the best chances to proceed from his group with Raimond Burgman (he beat him 40-28) and Christian Rudolph. The german lost to Burgman and needs to beat Christiani in such a way that his general average dramatically improves.
Choong Bok Lee will find Birol Uymaz on his way; it will be a direct duel to proceed. That also goes for Hyung Suk Kim and Sameh Sidhom.
Juan David Zapata had a somewhat better start (28 innings) than his competitor Nikos Polychronopoulos (31). José Maria Mas beat Jérôme Barbeillon and will play Korean Dong Koong Kang this evening.
Jean Paul de Bruijn against Jef Philipoom (both had untroubled wins over Cimentepe) will no doubt turn into a good fight. The Belgian is slightly favorite, the Dutchman being unpredictable but showing form recently.