HO CHI MIN CITY - The times when Spaniards were among the top players in the World Cups are behind us. Dani Sánchez is the latest of a small bunch of players who have transferred to the PBA, where Juan David Zapata and David Martinez, among others, are very successful winners. But fortunately, the Spaniards still have Jose Maria Mas, who led the daily rankings on the third day at the World Cup in Ho Chi Minh with 4 match points and 2,068 on average. A second Spaniard (Ruben Legazpi) will enter the field tomorrow, Thursday, and Robinson Morales is also counted among the Spaniards, but no more Spanish players have entered for this second 2023 World Cup.
Jose Maria Mas dominated the field on the day, where the Dutch were sent home with 'five in five' and both the Vietnamese and Koreans were among the 16 group winners with five players. Two Turks and two Japanese, including former world champion Ryuuji Umeda complete the field.
The day's winner Jose Maria Mas started with a win over Dutch American Raymon Groot 30-14 in 13 and won his second against strong Vietnamese, Van Ly Dao, 30-23 in 16. Sung Il Jeong, the runner-up on Wednesday, stayed just ahead of Huub Wilkowski in his second match, who was beaten 30-28 in 13 and just missed out on the top loser's spot due to his final miss.
Omer Karakurt grabbed the win in Group A thanks to a 30-29 win against Jose Miguel Soares in the last game. Dinh Quang Hai was the best in Group B where Rui Costa and Pierre Soumagne played a draw against each other. Thanh Tien Le was best in Group C, Ji Hun Ahn in Group D where one of the standouts in the first rounds (Younhyun You) fell out with 0.900.
Quoc Thich Pham kept young Dutchman Sam van Etten, who started very strongly with a win over Pham, out of the next round as three players finished with 2 match points and Pham was by far the best in average with 1.718. Sung Kyu Oh won twice, but did so in 34 and 27 innings. Robinson Morales, who announced that he will stay with UMB next year and therefore not leave for the PBA, won his group ahead of Le Duy Ngo and Joey de Kok.
Former world champion Ryuuji Umeda was good with four match points and modest in average: 1.132. Sung Il Jeong was among the top three on the day, Dong Ryong Kim survived another round and Tolgahan Kiraz beat a Vietnamese and Korean in 17 and 23 innings.
Dong Hoon Kim left Alessio D'Agata (two losses to the last position in the group. Duc Minh Tran and Trung Hau Do Nguyen were strong group winners and the second Japanese for the next round was Nobuyasu Sakai.
Tomorrow, Thursday, are the final qualifiers for the main draw with among others Murat Naci Coklu, Dion Nelin, Michael Nilsson and Lütfi Cenet. Jose Maria Mas makes an attempt to make the 'main draw', Peter Ceulemans and Jeffrey Jorissen play together in a group, the same as Robinson Morales and Luis Aveiga.
Three Dutch players in a Vietnamese garden: all three out of the game
The draws for the final qualifying day on Wednesday:
Group A: Sung Kyu Oh, Omer Karakurt, Ruben Legazpi
Group B: Quoc Thich Pham, Ryuuji Umeda, Dion Nelin,
Group C: Dong Ryung Kim, Nobuyasu Sakai, Murat Naci Coklu
Group D: Ji Hun Ahn, Dong Hoon Kim, Michael Nilsson
Group E: Arnim Kahofer, Duc Minh Tran, Myeong Jong Cha
Group F: Jeffrey Jorissen, Tolgahan Kiraz, Peter Ceulemans
Group G: Berkay Karakurt, Trung Hau Do Nguyen, Roland Forthomme
Group H: Luis Aveiga, Robinson Morales, Chang Hoon Seo
Group I: Gerhard Kostistansky, Quang Hai Dinh, Lütfi Cenet
Group J: Hong Chiem Thai, Thanh Tien Le, Jacob Sörensen
Group K: Bong Joo Hwang, Sung Il Jeong, Phuong Vin Bao
Group L: Tran Thanh Tu Nguyen, Jose Maria Mas, Riad Nady.
The day ranking on Wednesday:
- Jose Maria Mas 4-2.068-9
- Sung Il Jeong 4-2.000-8
- Thanh Tien Le 4-1.764-8
- Quang Hai Dinh 4-1.714-8
- Robinson Morales 4-1.666-10
- Trung Hau Do Nguyen 4-1.538-8
- Tolgahan Kiraz 4-1.500-8
- Duc Minh Tran 4-1.333-7
- Dong Hoon Kim 4-1.224-6
- NobuyasuSakai 4-1.224-5
- Omer Karakurt 4-1.111-8
- Sung Kyu Oh 4-0.983-7
- Ryuuji Umeda 4-1.132-7
- Quoc Thich Pham 2-1.718-9
- Dong Ryong Kim 2-1.239-7
- Ji Hun Ahn 2-1.160-6.