ANTALYA - The first 2020 World Cup, in the Turkish city of Antalya this weekend, has already lost five of its frontrunners from the circuit. Eddy Merckx, Jérémy Bury, Sung-Won Choi, Jung-Han Heo and Lütfi Cenet had a false start and were eliminated in the fight to reach the best sixteen. Dick Jaspers, Tayfun Tasdemir and JunTae Kim were the only players unbeaten in three matches. Marco Zanetti, Martin Horn, but especially Quyet Chien Tran and Myung-Woo Cho proved to be strong finishers, Tran and Cho barely escaped from elimination with matches in 10 and 12 innings. Dick Jaspers was the best after two matches with 2,857 over eighty caroms, but went down on average in his last match. Dinh Nai Ngo, the second in his group following Jaspers, was therefore the best scoring 2,619. Semih Sayginer highlighted with a run of 17, Pedro Gonzalez, who was eliminated, with 15.
Jaspers and Horn cancelled for the European team championship in Antalya and arrived in the Turkish resort on Wednesday afternoon. Jaspers: ''I make my choices and I don't have to play everywhere. It was not attractive to hang around here for 5 to 6 days. I'd rather stay home and practice there to prepare for this World Cup.'' The same did other players, like Murat Naci Coklu, who returned home after the Europeans.
The group winners at the World Cup start were Jaspers, Zanetti, JH Cho, Horn, HJ Kim, Tasdemir, JT Kim, Sayginer. The runners up: Ngo, Sánchez, Blomdahl, Nguyen Quoc, MW Cho, Coklu, Tran, TTT Nguyen.
The matches for Saturday with the last sixteen:
11.00, Turkish time:
Jaspers-Tran
Horn-Ngo
JH Cho-Coklu
Sayginer-TTT Nguyen
13.00 Turkish time:
Tasdemir-Nguyen Quoc Nguyen
HJ Kim-MW Cho
Zanetti-Blomdahl
JT Kim-Dani Sánchez.
The group overviews:
Group A:
Dick Jaspers' lightning start removes the tension for the leading position after two matches. The Dutchman wents full speed from the start and after two appearances has 2,857 on average for eighty caroms. He leads with 4 match points and can move up relaxed to the last match against Pedro Gonzalez from Colombia. The two players with two points, Dinh Nai Ngo and Yusuke Mori, still play against each other. Jaspers starts being down after a run of 8 against strong Vietnamese Ngo in the second inning. At the break, Ngo still leads 21-15 in 6, later for 24-17 and 29-23 in 10 innings, but from then on Jaspers launches his attack and finishes with 6, 9 and 2. The score comes to balance at 29-29 in 11, two innings later, Jaspers closes at 40-30 in 13. "I was happy with it, because I faced a very tough Ngo", is his comment. In the second match, Jaspers starts his offensive from 10th inning against young Japanese Yusuke Mori, who has won his first match against Gonzalez 40-36 in 16. Mori is not a shadow of the form in the match against Jaspers. From the 11th inning, Mori remains at 6, while Jaspers runs to the finish five innings after runs of 6, 5 and 11: 40-6 in 16. In the second round, Dinh Nai Ngo takes an option on qualification after beating Gonzalez 40-17 in 17. Ngo closes with a big win over Mori (40-15 in 13), Jaspers with a win over Pedro Gonzalez (40-33 in 32), that brings him down in average. Ngo is even the best on average (2,619 against Jaspers 2,000). The four players all score runs over ten.
Ranking Group A:
1 Dick Jaspers (Neth) 6-2,000-11
2 Dinh Nai Ngo (Vie) 4-2,619-12
3 Yusuke Mori (Jap) 2-1,366-10
4 Pedro Gonzalez (Col) 0-1.343-15
Group B:
Who should have expected such an outcome in this group? Marco Zanetti's disappointing start immediately sets the group on fire, as the Italian world's top three player loses to Korean Sung Il Jeong 40-33 in 27. So, without match points and not with a top average, Zanetti has to chase. Dani Sánchez and Lütfi Cenet play a draw in that first round in a long-balanced match, in which Sánchez misses two match balls and Cenet finishes with 5 for 40-39. The Spaniard brings the final score to 40-40 from the spots. Sánchez then takes the lead in the second round with a quick win over Jeong (40-14 in 15 after runs of 12 in the 9th and 9 in the 10th inning), and Zanetti jumps to second place by beating Cenet 40-32 in 21. The final round still offers opportunities to four players. Zanetti has a brilliant start with 13 facing Sánchez, launching him to a whole match lead. The end comes at 40 in 16, Sánchez just can counter with a run of 9 and come a little closer: 40-32. The Spaniard is still depending on Jeong, but when the Korean loses to Cenet (who is no longer able to catch up with Sánchez on average), Zanetti and Sánchez are the numbers 1 and 2.
Ranking Group B:
1 Marco Zanetti (Ita) 4-1,765-13
2 Dani Sánchez (Sp) 3-2,036-12
3 Lütfi Cenet (Tur) 3-1,555-7
4 Sung Il Jeong (Kor) 2-1,246-5
Group C:
The best starter is Jae-Ho Cho, who first beats Can Capak 40-25 in 17 and torments Torbjörn Blomdahl at the start of the match. The Swede remains all the way down at 19-3 to 28-10, comes slightly a bit closer at 32-23, but goes down at 40-27 in 23. That means for Blomdahl that after his first win against Jérôme Barbeillon (40-18 in 14), he still needs a forcing finish against Capak. The Turk leaves Barbeillon without a match point after two rounds by winning 40-24 in 24. The final shows that Blomdahl is the better of Capak (40-25 in 19). Jérôme Barbeillon takes his only success in the group with a win over group winner Jae-Ho Cho (40-31 in 15). Cho, however, wins the group ahead of Blomdahl, who only has a small relapse in his second match.
Ranking Group C:
1 Jae-Ho Cho (Kor) 4-2,039-8
2 Torbjörn Blomdahl (Swe) 4-1,910-12
3 Can Capak (Tur) 2-1,500-8
4 Jérôme Barbeillon (Fra) 2-1,270-6
Group D:
The stars are favorable to Nguyen Quoc Nguyen in a group with three feared competitors. The Vietnamese speedy first beats Martin Horn 40-17 in 21 and Michael Nilsson in his second appearance 40-34 in 29. But what about Eddy Merckx, the fighting machine, who starts with two losses. The Belgian is far from his best form against Nilsson (40-17 in 17) and starts his chase just too late against Martin Horn. The German leads in the final part 39-32 in 24, Merckx comes back with a run of six to two caroms of the end, but loses the fight 40-38 in 25. That promises a lovely fight on in the final round with Nilsson-Horn and Merckx-Nguyen. The German takes first place with an excellent final match and a win over Michael Nilsson 40-21 in 16. Nguyen Quoc Nguyen ends second despite a loss to Merckx (40-29 in 24), taking his only win, but still ends the last of four.
Ranking Group D:
1 Martin Horn (Ger) 4-1,590-8
2 Nguyen Quoc Nguyen (Vie) 4-1,472-9
3 Michael Nilsson (Swe) 2-1,532-7
4 Eddy Merckx (Bel) 2-1,461-9
Group E:
Roland Forthomme faces three renowned Koreans and has a best start against Myung-Woo Cho. That leads the Belgian to 10-2, 20-6 in 8 at the stop and still 26-10 after 15 innings. Then, doing a Jack-in-the-box, little Korean comes with his stunning final rush. Two runs of 10 and 5 in the 19th and 20th inning makes him lead 36-28. The Belgian gets two more chances, of which he seems to take advantage in his last run. But scoring 7, he misses a fairly easy triangle. Cho misses another tim, but finishes 40-38 in 22. HaengJik Kim wins his first in the country clash against Jung-Han Heo (40-33 in 16) and is superior in his second against Myung-Woo Cho. Before he faces his last against Forthomme, HaengJik leads by 4 match points and 2,352. Roland Forthomme keeps his chances by a win over Heo 40-32 in 21. The Belgian, howerver is the victim of the top match when Myung-Woo Cho crowns his performance. The youngest of the Koreans defeats his fellow countryman Heo, 40-13 in 12 innings. Forthomme, who plays against HaengJik Kim and later wins 40-37 in 26, knows ten innings before the end that he has already passed by little Cho.
Ranking Group E:
1 HaengJik Kim (Kor) 4-2,132-8
2 Myung Woo Cho (Kor) 4-1,903-10
3 Roland Forthomme (Bel) 4-1,710-7
4 Jung-Han Heo (Kor) 0-1,.591- 11
Group F:
Two Turks compete with two Koreans for towering this group. They first meet each others in the first rounds. Tayfun Tasdemir beats Murat Naci Coklu 40-33 in 23, Chang Hoon Seo beats Sung-Won Choi 40-23 in 19. The former world champion Choi has been eliminated by two losses, Tasdemir with 4 match points surely qualified after two rounds, because Coklu and Seo, both at two match points, still play against each other. The Turkish top guns share the spoils, Tasdemir by being the better of Sung-Won Choi, who remains empty-handed, Coklu against Seo with an outstanding victory: 40-17 in 16.
Ranking Group F:
1 Tayfun Tasdemir (Tur) 6-1,621-6
2 Murat Naci Coklu (Tur) 4-1,883-10
3 Chang Hoon Seo (Kor) 2-1,467-7
4 Sung-Won Choi 0-1,187-10
Group G:
Korean JunTae Kim, who made his breakthrough in a short time, lays the foundation for entering the main draw. He first beats Quyet Chien Tran (40-24 in 18) and then Jérémy Bury with a comfortable margin (40-31 in 24). The battle for the next positions comes to a conclusion in the final round. Gökhan Salman joins in the fight by his victory over Quyet Chien Tran (40-17 in 13) in a strong performance with an early run of 12 and leading 21-7, which later rises to 35-13. The Vietnamese is unrecognizable with a 40-17 loss in 13 and seems to have spoiled his chances. The metamorphosis is striking. In his last match, Tran explodes with the best match in these preliminaries: 40-16 in 11 innings against Jérémy Bury. JunTae Kim remains unbeaten against Gökhan Salman, who loses his qualification to Tran.
Ranking Group G:
1 JunTae Kim (Kor) 6-1,690-10
2 Quyet Chien Tran (Vie) 2-1,975-13
3 Gökhan Salman (Tur) 2-1,479-12
4 Jérémy Bury (Fra) 2-1,338-13
Group H:
Semih Sayginer's little misstep against a great Sameh Sidhom (who wins 40-33 in 21) is immediately repaired in the second round. Then, the Turkish wizard is inimitable once again, including a fantastic 17 run. Semih secures the win against Trung Hau Do Nguyen, who remains scoreless at the bottom after two matches. Sayginer's start is a bit sober (15-9 behind), the recovery afterwards is impressive. The end of the game comes with 17 and 6. The other Vietnamese, Tran Thanh Tu Nguyen, a 25-year revelation so far in the tournament, becomes the leader after two rounds with four match points after his victory overSidhom 40-34 in 24. Sayginer has a much better average of 2,147 against 1,481 for the Korean, against whom he plays his last match. And Sidhom, of course also has his chances. But the Egyptian, known as an up-and-down player, loses control vs Trung Hau Do Nguyen and loses his last 40-31 in 24. Sayginer finishes as a sovereign group winner by beating TTT Nguyen 40-37 in 18 innings.
Ranking Group H:
1 Semih Sayginer (Tur) 4-2,132-17
2 Tran Thanh Tu Nguyen (Vie) 4-1,602-11
3 Sameh Sidhom (Eg) 2-1,521-7
4 Trung Hau Do Nguyen (Vie) 2-1,432 -11.
Young man Myung-Woo Cho kept an excellent Roland Forthomme away from the best sixteen