HURGHADA - In previous years, the Belgian feared outsider Ronny Brants has often played a main role in the pre-rounds of a World Cup. And again he has great plans this year. With the best match on the second day in Hurghada's World Cup, Ronny Brants finished in the top three of the ranking just behind the number one Antonio Montes. The Spaniard closed the day with four match points and a 1.500 average. Ronny Brants after victories over Tobias Bouerdick (30-28 in 29) and Radek Novak (30-13 in 14) recorded 1.395 average. "It's a day to be very happy'', said the Belgian.
Ronny Brants hungers for World Cup success again in Egypt, where he eliminated big players as Semih Sayginer not so long ago. The Fleming, at his best in important tournaments, had a difficult opponent in his first performance in Hurghada and grew to his best level in his second match against Novak. "I know I can do it, but I'm always very happy with it'', commented Brants. "I knew it would be difficult in my first game. Tobias Bouerdick is my teammate in Germany at Botrop. That makes it always very tough to play. I had to win my second match, a draw was not good enough against Novak. I started with 5 from the break, I played my defense well and kept on scoring at the good moments.''
Antonio Montes played his best match against Herbert Szivacz (30-14 in 15 innings) and won his last match against Bernard Baudoin (30-22 in 25). With Montes and Ronny Brants, three Turks, Ahmet Alp, Manol Minaoglu and Savas Bulut, finished in top five. Of the ten Egyptians on this second day, only Mahmoud Ayman went on to the next round. A striking appearance in the exodus of home players, Mohamed Ardash, now may switch from billiard player to photographer. He is known in the Egyptian billiards world for his wonderful pictures, but also likes to show his skills in his other hobby, billiards.
The most exciting match was in the group where the Koreans Hyun-Suk Kim and Chang-Hoon Seo met. The first encounter between the two Asians ended in 30-30 in 19. The Egyptian, Gamal Abdin, then was the executioner: Kim won 30-8 in 18, Seo 30-5 in 21. The averages were decisive: Kim 1.621, Seo 1.500. That meant for Seo the elimination as the first player on the reserve list.
Most interesting groups for Tuesday, the third day in Hurghada:
Poule C: Murat Tüzül, Martin Horn, Manuel Sousa
Poule E: Jean Paul de Bruijn, Barry van Beers, Mahmoud Ayman
Poule G: Dion Nelin, Murat Celik, Sung Kyu Oh
Poule H: Filippos Kasidokostas, Sung Il Jeong, Ahmed Emam
Poule J: Jacob Haack Sörensen, Kostas Kokkoris, Dionisis Tsokantas
Poule K: Jae-Guen Kim, Hyung-Bum Hwang, Ivo Gazdos
Poule L: Thomas Andersen, Savas Bulut, Trung Hau Do Nguyen
Poule N: Duc Anh Chien Nguyen, Ahmet Alp, Yusuke Mori
Poule O: Ronny Brants, Tolgahan Kiraz, Kostas Papakonstantinou
Poule P: Antonio Montes, Hideaki Kobayashi, Therese Klompenhouwer.
Antonio Montes, best ranked on the second day
Mohamed Ardash, one of the Egyptians that left the World Cup on the second day
Jacop Haack Sörensen outplayed Mohamed Ardash and Gülsen Degener
Ahmet Alp, one of three Turks in the top 5 of the day