Things are not so bad over here

SUWON – Jovial as ever, world champion or not: Eddy Merckx showed up at the Suwon World Cup today in a chipper mood. To say it in Belgian: ,,Alles valt goe mee hier'' (things are not so bad over here). The temperature is pleasant, at least in the late afternoon hours.

,,It was hot first, but then there was a breeze. We are having fun, the room is okay, like last year.''

What about the turmoil following his world title last week? “I was pretty busy for a few days, and this past weekend was a double header in the Dutch league, so I have not sat around since Porto.''

The Belgian will enter the tournamen ton Friday, like all the players from the top 12 of the ranking.

Today (tuesday) the second qualification round has started, with another few high quality matches. Flight B had the most spectacular opening.

Korean Tae Soo Lim started with a superb match against his countryman Jong Wan Kim, who got seriously drubbed 15-3 and 15-3 in eleven innings (2.722/0.600). Jong Wan Kim’s bounceback was remarkable: in his second match he beat Japanese player Kazutaka Hodozuka 15-4 and 15-2 (2.000 average).

Dong-Ryong Kim, like on the first day when he recorded 3.000 average, was quick off the mark. The Korean now defeated Japanese Harumi Andou with 2.500 average (15-6, 15-3). The third player in this group is the Young Turk Omer Karakurt.

The first European performance was pretty dismal: Dutch billiard player / tourist Peter Sprenkels had no chance against Maseyuki Mito: 15-6, 15-4, Sprenkels recording a 0.232 average.