SEOUL - The majestic start Dong-Koong Kang made in Seoul, Myung-Woo Cho's victory in a thrilling fight with Semih Sayginer and Filippos Kasidokostas' masterpiece with a run of 18 brought the first fireworks to the arena in Seoul World Cup's main tournament. The starting field with 32 was halved on the first day and showed awesome matches, but, also heavyweights who have been eliminated. Frédéric Caudron, Quyet Chien Tran, Dani Sánchez, Jae-Ho Cho, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Sung-Won Choi and Murat Naci Coklu already left the tournament. HaengJik Kim, two World Cups ago still the number 3 on the world rankings, suffers a free-fall and will probably be around 20th position on Sunday, close to Dani Sánchez and Nikos Polychronopoulos.
Considering the strength of the current top and sub-top players, nobody is certain to survive. That lived to see Caudron, Tran and Blomdahl against Koreans Hyun Min Seo, Jae-Guen Kim and Bong chul Kim, Sánchez against Vietnamese Anh Vu Duong, HaengJik Kim against Dutchman Jean Paul de Bruijn and Choi against Turk Can Capak. The top ten already lost seven players on this first day: Caudron, Sayginer, Jae-Ho Cho, Tran, Coklu, HaengJik Kim and Heo. The three players to continue are Dick Jaspers, Marco Zanetti and Eddy Merckx.
Could the rising level of the current players be better portrayed than in the third session of this opening day in Seoul? The main tournament was just five innings on the road on four tables and we could see incredible averages on the scoreboards: Dong-Koong Kang at 6.400, Myung-Woo Cho 4.200, Marco Zanetti 3.400 and Dick Jaspers was the worst with 3.000. Dong-Koong Kang's start against Coklu eventually led to the best match of the day. The Korean was 15-0 ahead after two innings (run 13), 27-3 after four innings (run 7) and ended the match after Coklu's come-back with 40-24 in 11 innings.
The other peak moments in order of attendence:
* Filippos Kasidokostas launced his match against Minh Cam Ma with one point in six innings and finished the match eight innings later after a fantastic race with a highlight of 1-3-3-2-8-4-18-0-1. The Greek scored 40-27 in 14 innings and certainly is a dangerous opponent for the next rounds.
* Jean Paul de Bruijn, an underdog in his match against HaengJik Kim, attacked in the third inning with a run of 11, led 20-17 at the break and hit the gap with another 11 in the tenth inning leading to a 31-17 lead. The Dutchman crowned his strong performance with a 40-23 win 13 innings.
* Bong chul Kim, one of the not-so-famous Koreans, faced a 15-1 backlog against Torbjörn Blomdahl in four innings. The Swede then scored only a few 'one-pointers', totally lost his way and was punished by the Korean in the last two innings to the finish with 4 and 8. The final score: 40-30 in 16innings.
* Two Nguyens played a one-way match: Nguyen Quoc Nguyen enjoyed a walk-over against Duc Anh Chien Nguyen, who started the match with 7 misses. When the one Nguyen had finished at 40-3 in 14, the other Nguyen could make the score more friendly with 8 in the equalizer.
X Myung-Woo Cho fired up the match against Semih Sayginer with a run of 11 in the third inning (18-4). He ran out to a 21-4 lead but then Sayginer started his catch-up race with small runs of 5, 6, 4 and 6. The score after 19 innings: a 38-35 lead for the Korean, who received four more chances from Sayginer and finished at 38-38 with two winning points: 40-38 in 22.
The last round had scores the least with four matches over 20 innings. Eddy Merckx outplayed Pedro Piedrabuena in that round 40-27 in 20, Eddy Leppens was the better of Jae-Ho Cho with a final run of eight, 40-35 in 23, Anh Vu Duong edged Dani Sánchez 40-35 in 24 and Jae- Guen Kim defeated Quyet Chien Tran with 40-33 in 23.
That brought the matches for Saturday to the best sixteen:
13.00:
Seo-Kasidokostas
Oh-Morales
Nguyen-Capak
Bong chul Kim-De Bruijn
15.00:
Zanetti-Myung Woo Cho
Jaspers-Kang
Leppens-Duong
Jae Guen Kim-Merckx.
Myung-Woo Cho, thrilling match, win over Sayginer
Nguyen Quoc Nguyen, one-way match with another Nguyen
Jean Paul de Bruijn, strong winner against HaengJik Kim, back in business?
Korean qualifier Hyun Min Seo outplayed the nr. 1 Caudron
And another dark horse, Bong chul Kim, sent Blomdahl home
Robinson Morales, a feared Colombian in the field of 16
Eddy Leppens, ready to take steps up the ranking board.