ANKARA – The home crowd at the World Cup in Ankara can look forward to the final days with many of their own players. Tarik Yavuz, ranked 55th in the world, led the field of 12 group winners on Thursday with 4 match points and 2.352 on average, ahead of France's Jérémy Bury with 4 match points and 2.284 and Korea's Ja In Kang 4 match points and 2.162. Half of the 12 group winners were Turkish players, who are making a huge impression in their own centre. The final field with 32 players even includes 11 Turks, an unprecedented luxury for the home country.
The last day of play before the start of the main draw was the scene of many sensational matches, highlights and unexpected eliminations. Two Dutchmen, Glenn Hofman and Jean Paul de Bruijn, moved up as runners-up, the same as Korean Haeng Jik Kim. Frédéric Caudron, in a tough period of his career, found himself in the losers' ranking as number 26 out of 36 qualifying players on this day. The Turks shone with Tarik Yavuz, Turgay Orak, Vedat Yilmaz, Ahmet Alp, Omer Karakurt and Muammer Rahmet. Ahmet Alp started his match against Emrullah Basegmez with 5 zeros, trailing 13-0, but was the star player of the day with a run of 19 in the 14th inning. That was ultimately good for 40-30 in 22.
Tarik Yavuz achieved the highest score in the matches against Ronny Lindemann and Glenn Hofman. The match with the Dutchman was a delightful one. The Turk was trailing 22-13, but in the following innings he made runs of 5, 10, 4 and 8 for a 40-35 victory in 12 innings: 3.333 against 2.833 on average. The loss of the match put Hofman in second place in the group, but with his average 2.114, the Dutchman was the best of all the losers.
The three winners of the day did even better: Yavuz 2.352, Bury 2.285 and Kang 2.162. The Frenchman Bury defeated his compatriot Devogelaere in 15 and Yalcin in 20. Ja In Kang defeated one of the standouts from the preliminary rounds, Mehmet Aksoy, 40-16 in 14, and Nick Polychronopoulos 40-25 in 23. The Greek finished last in the rankings with 0 match points and 0.866, just behind Necdet Yalcin, who had to leave the World Cup after three glorious days.
Omer Karakurt led a group of strong players on average. The Turk lost to TTT Nguyen 40-39, but defeated Jean Paul de Bruijn 40-18 in 14 in his last match. Jean Paul de Bruijn was rewarded with qualification as runner-up for his win against Nguyen 40-26 in 25, with a small lead over Bong Joo Hwang, Pierre Soumagne and Volkan Cetin. Dimitrios Seleventas won the group ahead of Pierre Soumagne and Frédéric Caudron, with three players finishing on 2 match points. The young Greek was the best in terms of average with 1.558, Soumagne had 1.407 and Caudron 1.392. Vedat Yilmaz, coming from the previous rounds, stayed ahead of Jeffrey Jorissen and Roland Forthomme thanks to runs of 12 against Forthomme and 11 against Jorissen. Jorissen beat Forthomme (40-27 in 28), but that was not enough to qualify.
The twelve group winners and runners-up
- Tarik Yavuz 4-2.352-10
- Jérémy Bury 4-2.284-7
- Ja In Kang 4-2.162-8
- Turgay Orak 4-1.777-9
- Ruben Legazpi 4-1.666-14
- Vedat Yilmaz 4-1.481-12
- Peter Ceulemans 4-1.379-7
- Ahmet Alp 3-1.311-19
- Omer Karakurt 2-1.975-9
- Myeong Jong Cha 2-1.644-7
- Dimitrios Seleventas 2-1.558-7
- Muammer Rahmet 2-1.480-10
Three runners-up for the final rounds:
Haeng Jik Kim 3-1,159-7
Glenn Hofman 2-2,114-9
Jean Paul de Bruijn 2-1,487-7
Ahmet Alp, one of the strong Turks, shining with a 19 run
Frenchman Jérémy Bury in top three, meeting Jaspers, De Bruijn and Vera in main draw
Peter Ceulemans, the only from three Belgians to qualify
The 8 groups of 4 in the last 32:
Group A: Dick Jaspers, Jean Paul de Bruijn, Jérémy Bury, Javier Vera
Group B: Myung Woo Cho, Glenn Hofman, Tarik Yavuz, Gökhan Salman
Group C: Eddy Merckx, Haeng Jik Kim, Hong Chiem Thai, Yilmaz Oscan
Group D: Quyet Chien Tran, Phuong Vinh Bao, Ja In Kang, Muammer Rahmet
Group E: Thanh Luc Tran, Dimitrios Seleventas, Berkay Karakurt, Turgay Orak
Group F: Tayfun Tasdemir, Myeong Jong Cha, Martin Horn, Ruben Legazpi
Group G: Marco Zanetti, Jung Han Heo, Vedat Yilmaz, Omer Karakurt
Group H: Sameh Sidhom, Tolgahan Kiraz, Ahmet Alp, Peter Ceulemans.