SHARM EL SHEIKH – The most of the Turkish players, like Muammer Rahmet, are around 2,250 kilometers from home to play the Sharm El Sheikh World Cup. The Turkish dominance was remarkable on the second day in the Egyptian tourist resort near the Red Sea. Muammer Rahmet (45) was the best of 11 Turkish winners in 16 group rounds this Monday. Muammer continues the tournament tomorrow against German Ronny Lindemann and Jordanian Naser Awwad. Rahmet, lives in Istanbul, is married to Valentina with whom he runs a cosmetics shop. He has been playing billiards since the age of 10, but has only been a regular player on the World Cups circuit in recent years. ''I used to play only World Cups in Turkey, so one in a year, but now I try to play them all.'' He has now played 19 World Cups and made many friends in the billiard world. For now, Muammer has made it to the main draw of a World Cup once in Antalya 2018.
With his average, Rahmet towered above his rivals on this second day, especially because he shone in his second match against German Thomas Kerl, winning 30-13 in nine innings. That brought his total to 1,818 over two games. Three other Turks joined him in the top five of the rankings: Yavuz Gungordu, Tarik Yavuz and Ahmet Alp. Third in that ranking was Vietnamese Van Ly Dao, well-known European players as group winners were Peter De Backer, Huub Wilkowski and Dustin Jäschke.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, 16 Turks will again be in action in the 16 groups of three for the third day session. Robinson Morales, the Spanish Colombian who beat Dick Jaspers and Eddy Merckx in a fortnight in the Netherlands and France, leads the first group with one Turk (Serdar Bas) and one Jordanian. Other well-known players include Burak Hashas, Turgay Orak, Omer Karakurt, Peter De Backer, Van Ly Dao and Jeffrey Jorissen. For the Netherlands, Glenn Hofman returns to the tournament with a little luck. He lost his first match against Tarik Yavuz 30-25 in 17, won the next one against Belgian Alan Saeijs 40-15 in 18 and, with the excellent moyenne of 1.571, was allowed to join as best reserve.
Known players for Tuesday with some opponents:
Robinson Morales with Serdar Bas.
Jeffrey Jorissen with Hyeong Kon.
Kim and Minh Kiet Doan.
Burak Hashas with Jose Miguel Soares and Ali Gulbay.
Dustin Jäschke with TTT Nguyen.
Sam van Etten with Gökhan Salman and Ahmet Malkadi.
Omer Karakurt with Huub Wilkowski.
Joey de Kok with Emrullah Basegmez and Sung Il Jeong.
Peter De Backer with Volkan Cetin and Claus Maurer.
Dimitrios Seleventas with Kostas Kokkoris and Ahmet Alp.
Pierre Soumagne with Takao Miyashita and Tarik Yavuz.
Glenn Hofman with Van Ly Dao and Kevin Vasseur.
Muammer Rahmet with Ronny Lindemann.
The excellent day winner, Turkish Muammer Rahmet
Vietnamese Van Ly Dao
The ranking of group winners on Monday:
- Muammer Rahmet 4-1.818-7
- Yavuz Gongordu 4-1.578-8
- Van Ly Dao 4-1.395-8
- Tarik Yavuz 4-1.395-7
- Ahmet Alp 4-1.276-7
- Peter De Backer 4-1.250-5
- Seymen Ozbas 4-1.176-6
- Emrullah Basegmez 4-1.177-5
- Huub Wilkowski 4-0.967-6
- Ahmet Malkadi 4-0.923-4
- Dustin Jäschke 4-0.882-5
- Muhammed Cavusoglu 4-0.800-5
- Ali Gulbay 4-0.759-4
- Vedat Akyol 4-0.652-4
- Minh Kiet Doan 2-1.057-5
- Serdal Bas 2-0.960-5.
First reserve player: Glenn Hofman 2-1.571-8