VERDERIO – Young Greek player Dimitrios Seleventas, Spaniard Sergio Martinez and Portuguese Luis Pinto are the three frontrunners with the maximum four match points at the European three-cushion championship for players under 21. For now, the southern trio is ahead of Denizcan Akkoca, Nikolaus Kogelbauer, Marcos Morales, Mustafa Oguz Ceylan and Hakan Gorguc, who are also unbeaten but yet have to play one match more than the players on top in the preliminary rounds. Belgian Nick Rosier played the best match on the first day of the tournament: in his match against Dutchman Joris van 't Zelfden, Rosier won 25-19 in 18 innings. That was the best game of this match day, but later Rosier lost to Turk Mustafa Oguz Ceylan 25-23 in 41.
Dimitrios Seleventas has unbeaten status in Group H, in which he first defeated Italian Mirko Russino 25-7 in 25 and later Turk Abdullah Kaya 25-24 in 21. The two best players from the eight groups of three move on to the best 16, leaving Kaya and Russino to play for second place in this group.
Reigning champion Denizcan Akkoca started in Group A with a win over Tangui Duriez 25-14, after the young Frenchman had beaten Christos Falangas in his first game 25-20 in 41. Portuguese Luis Pinto is already unreachable in Group B, the group of death, after wins against Amir Ibraimov (25-17 in 32) and against Lukas Mortensen 25-9 in 26 innings. Mortensen and Ibraimov will play for place 2 this Saturday.
Nathan Duriez, Tangui's older brother, has already definitely qualified as No 2 in Group C after winning against Goncalo Santos, who later also lost to Nikolaus Kogelbauer. Duriez and Kogelbauer will play for first place, but both are already qualified for the next round.
Marcos Morales did good business in Group D with a win over Nathan Legendre (25-12 in 21). The Frenchman in turn won by the minimum score against Daniel Kristiansen 25-24 in 47 innings. Turkey's Mustafa Oguz Ceylan leads with 1 win in Group E, but is equal in match points with Nick Rosier, the Belgian who has finished the pre rounds and is in the waiting room after the nice win over Joris van 't Zelfden. The Dutchman still has a chance to be equal in match points with his two rivals if he wins against Ceylan in the last game.
Seymen Ozbas was one of the favorites on beforehand, but the Turk started with a loss against Sergio Martinez (25-16 in 23). And because Martinez also won his first match against Dutchman Andy Nab (25-20 in 25), the Ozbas-Nab match will decide the second qualification spot.
Daniel Santos-Pardo faced little opposition from Italian Paolo Turla (25-10 in 23). The Spaniard did lose his second match to Hakan Gorguc 25-21 in 29. In Group H, the leading position is unattainable: Dimitrios Seleventas won his two matches against Mirko Russino and Abdullah Kaya, the two players duelling for second place.
The provisional standings of the top ten:
1 Dimitrios Seleventas 4-1.086-6
2 Sergio Martinez 4-1.041-5
3 Luis Pinto 4-0.862-5
4 Nikolaus Kogelbauer 2-1,250-9
5 Marcos Morales 2-1,190-6
6 Denizcan Akkoca 2-1,000-4
7 Daniel Sainz Pardo 2-0.884-4
8 Nick Rosier 2-0.813-5
9 Hakan Gorguc 2-0.862-4
10 Goncalo Santos 2-0.744-4.
European and world champion Burak Hashas is in top three with the maximum score of six match points at the Under-17 Championship at the small table after three matches. The Turkish junior champion played his best match over 25 caroms in 10 innings (2,500). Hashas is on his way to a tournament in which he is the undisputed favorite. In the provisional standings, there are still two players with six match points. Samet Aygun is even the leader with 1.500 on average ahead of Hashas with 1.442 and Toni Garcia with 1.363.
''I started a little sick, I didn’t feel well. I am tired, with fever, cough and nasal congestion, but I will come through fine,'' Hashas told after the early morning start. He assures that he will be able to continue playing. Hashas won his matches against Yuri Wilkowski (25-7 in 21), Bruno Martinez (25-11 in 10) and Christos Kisniarov (25-12 in 21) and is already sure of the lead. Burak Hashas is in his final year to compete in this under-17 championship. ’’I registered for the European Championship at the small table because I did not want to get in the way of other Turkish players of the under 21,'' he gave as the reason for the switch to the under 17 championship.
The three groups of five players will play for two top positions in three groups (is six players) and two best numbers three. Turk Kivanic Burkan Yildrim is top in average with 2.272 after two games played.
Apart from Burak Hashas with six match points, the provisional best players are:
1 Samet Aygun 6-1,500-8
2 Burak Hashas 6-1,442-11
3 Toni Garcia 6-1,363-6
4 Kivanic Burkan Yildrim 2-4-2,272-10
5 Arturo Daniel Zotov 2-4-1,250-4.
Burak Hashas, the undisputed favorite to win the under 17