PORTO - The crowd were on their feet for minutes, applauding a crazy match. Birol Uymaz won it 40-39, Quoc Nguyen Nguyen lost by that score. Together they played the most astonishing match of their World Cup careers. The Turk ran sixteen from the break, the Vietnamese topped that run in the twelfth inning with a twenty.
Ten minutes after the match, they were both still trembling with emotion as they stood in front of the Kozoom camera's, now knowing they had both moved into the tournament's main draw. It was such a moving story: the Vietnamese player said he had so enjoyed all the encouragement from the crowd, and Birol Uymaz confessed that he too had applauded his opponent's monumental run.
,,I was happy with the win, because it was such a historic match for both of us'', said Uymaz. And Quoc, who has a billiard room in Vietnam, used the best of his English to tell he had once ran twenty in practice, but that this was special, a highlight in his career.
The crowning moment came at the end of the qualification day. Surprises were there: Gokhan Salman kept Filippos Kasidokostas and Lütfi Cenet from the flight win, Savas Bulut beat Nikos Polychronopoulos, but certainly also Carlos Crespo, the Spaniard who is now rarely seen in World Cups and has dropped out of the top 400 in the ranking.
Not only did he beat Turk Tolgahan Kiraz on Wednesday, he also got the better of Korean Durk Hee Hwang and Vietnamese Quyet Chien Tran in the final qualification round, and he did it with convincing averages. "My studies took priority over billiards, and then I got a job'', said Crespo after his admirable performance. ,,I am no longer interested in the ranking, billiards is a hobby now.''
Another Spaniard, a real amateur, who makes long hours driving a truck, almost added another upset to the day. Alfonso Legazpi, Ruben and Adrian's father, first beat Javier Palazón 40-27 in 26 innings, then kept up with Jérémy Bury until it was 30-30, but finally lost to the Frenchman who showed his experience in the closing innings.
Gokhan Salman topped the charts of the day, he never played better than he did in Porto: 4 match points and a 2.162 average, ahead of Lütfi Cenet with 1.543 and Filippos Kasidokostas 1.207.
Birol Uymaz won his flight with 1.777, ahead of Quoc Nguyen Nguyen, who averaged even higher:1.880. Jung-Han Heo won his flight after a tight race with Ruben Legazpi (40-40). The Korean was in the top-3 with his 1.904, after Salman and ahead of Uymaz, Choong-Bok Lee (1.600), the two Vietnamese players Trung Hau Do Nguyen and Anh Vu Duong, and Savas Bulut (1.568).
Ruben Legazpi (three match points, 1.403) Quoc Nguyen Nguyen (two points, 1.880), Quiet Chien Tran (two points, 1.681) and Adnan Yüksel (two points, 1.549) got into the main draw as the best four runners-up. Lütfi Cenet, Nikos Polychronopoulos, Alfonso Legazpi and Peter Ceulemans just missed out, as well as Jef Philipoom, who played two draws and fell short.
Carlos Crespo in his match with Vietnamese Tran
The day's ranking:
1 Gokhan Salman 4-2.162-9
2 Birol Uymaz 4-1.777-16
3 Choong-Bok Lee 4-1.600-10
4 Savas Bulut 4-1.568-11
5 Trung Hau Do Nguyen 4-1.568-8
6 Eddy Leppens 4-1.403-8
7 Jae Guen Kim 4-1.355-7
8 Carlos Crespo 4-1.355-7
9 Jérémy Bury 4-1.355-7
10 Jung-Han Heo 3-1.904-8
11 Anh Vu Duong 3-1.568-10
12 Hyung Bum Hwang 2-1.111-5.
Best runners-up:
1 Rubén Legazpi 3-1.403-8
2 Quoc Nguyen Nguyen 2-1.880-20
3 Quiet Chien Tran 2-1.681-8
4 Adnan Yüksel 2-1.549-7.
The draw for the main tournament tomorrow:
13.00:
Torbjörn Blomdahl-Jérémy Bury
Dong Koong Kang-Rui Manuel Costa
Marco Zanetti-Trung-Hau Do Nguyen
Birol Uymaz-Quiet Chien Tran
15.00:
Choong-Bok Lee-Joao Ferreira
Frédéric Caudron-Jung-Han Heo
Savas Bulut-Pedro Piedrabuena
Dick Jaspers-Quoc Nguyen Nguyen
17.00:
Eddy Merckx-Jae Guen Kim
Roland Forthomme-Ruben Legazpi
Dani Sánchez-Adnan Yüksel
Jean Paul de Bruijn-Carlos Crespo
19.00:
Tayfun Tasdemir-Hyung Bum Hwang
Jae Ho Cho-Chi Yeon Cho
Gokhan Salman-Eddy Leppens
Sung-Won Choi-Anh Vu Duong.
Gokhan Salman, who beat Filippos Kasidokostas, topped the day ranking.