VIENNA - Years ago he played many tournaments for the World Cup and introduced the young Greeks Filipos Kasidokostas and Nikos Polychronopoulos in the circuit of three cushion. Today, Kostas Papakonstantinou, made his return himself with a great, unexpected victory in the first round of the main event in Vienna.
In qualifying on Friday he made an end of the illusions for the Spanish champion Antonio Ortiz, today Papakonstantinou began with a victory against Tayfun Tasdemir: 15-10, 15-13, 3-15, 8-15, 15-6.
The Turk, who's fourteenth in the world ranking, dropped a little further from top twelve now. The Greek doesn't care about the ranking: after eight years absence in the big tournaments, we can find him now on 225th place.
,,I have been started a billiard shop and do some other jobs'', he said after his victory. ,,That's why I have been away for at least eight years, in which I only played two tournaments. But now I'm trying to be back and play every tournament.''
He was one of the sensations in the first round, just lik the Colombian champion Robinson Morales, who defeated Jérémy Bury. Is Morales a stranger in top of three cushion? No, he isn't. Frédéric Caudron said: ,,He's not, for sure, I know him, he has also lived in Spain for a few years and played for a team near Alicante. He's a dangerous opponent, we have seen now.''