The comparison between Trabzon and Matosinhos, the first and second tournament in the World Cup this year, is remarkable. The top players have not launched too impressive in the main tournament in Portugal. Four of the 32 players finished with averages over two on the first day, there were six of them earlier in the year in Trabzon.
Dick Jaspers started with 2.812 average in Trabzon, Torbjörn Blomdahl 2.545, Kyung-Roul Kim 2.344, Jean van Erp 2.321 and Filipos Kasidokostas and Frédéric Caudron 2.250. Jaspers, Caudron and Polychronopoulos were in Matosinhos on the first day the highest scoring players with matches of 45 in 21 innings (all three 2.142 average).
Heo Jung Han, who was eliminated in a five-setter by Tayfun Tasdemir, made the highest run yesterday (12), Torbjörn Blomdahl scored a fourteen in Trabzon.
Marco Zanetti played the shortest set in three innings yesterday, Jaspers finished a set in two innings in Trabzon and Blomdahl and Kasidokostas in three innings.
Ramon Rodriguez was the worst loser in Trabzon with 0.925, the Spaniard Manuel Gonzalez Castrillo lost with 0.809 yesterday.
The first scores in the World Cup scores give a slight advantage to Trabzon, but the top players can still grow in the tournament. That happened with Eddy Merckx in Trabzon. The Belgian started the main event against the Colombian Julian Morales and quickly looked at a 2-0 disadvantage. But Merckx fought back, won 3-2 and then won the tournament in a superior final against Kyung-Roul Kim.
This morning the eighth finals started with the following matches (directly broadcased by kozoom.com):
Blomdahl, Bury
Caudron-Legazpi
Jaspers-Leppens
Kasidokostas-Polychronopoulos