SCHILTIGHEIM - The Turkish foursome with Tayfun Tasdemir, Cenet, Murat Naci Coklu and Adnan Yüksel, is widely considered as the big challenger for Agipi in the battle for the European Cup. The team has a strong line-up at four positions, with players who have a great international experience.
On day two of the European final, Bahcelievler comes to the tables for the first time. The opponent is called Andernos, the team that played a draw against Laxou on the first day. Based on a better score, Andernos is the group leader.
Looking back on day one, Torbjörn Blomdahl and Jean van Erp were the best players: the Swede and Dutchman won their games with 2.667 average. Jean van Erp was also the best with a high run of 11.
The Spanish Coral Colón took the highest team average in his matches: 1.495 and 1.471. Nikos Polychronopoulos was the most outstanding player: he recovered after a slow start with a very strong performance and victory over Frédéric Caudron (2.353 average).
Agipi, the eightfold champion, could not shine with an impressive start, however the team beat Coral Colón thanks to the traditionally strong final sprint of Marco Zanetti, who bowed a large backlog to victory. Therefore Agipi won 6-2.
The French team will play against De Ploeg later today for reaching the semifinals.
Andernos and Laxou played a draw in their first performance. It was the only match so far in Group B. Roland Forthomme and Jérôme Barbeillon were the star players for Andernos with 1.905 average. Very remarkable was that the two other players from the team remained under one average.
Filippos Kasidokostas even recorded a very poor 0.571 against Blomdahl.
The averages ranking after one day:
1 Torbjörn Blomdahl, Jean van Erp 2.667
3 Nikos Polychronopoulos 2.353 (first match 1.15)
4 Sergio Jimenez 2.000 (first match 1.652)
5 Roland Forthomme, Jérôme Barbeillon, Josep Maria Mas 1.905
6 Jean Christophe Roux 1.667
7 Frédéric Caudron 1.647
8 Marco Zanetti 1.538
9 Dirk Weeremans 1.316
10 Jérémy Bury, Carlos Crespo 1.250.
The first matches of today started at 10:00:
Bahcelievler-Andernos
10.00:
Coklu-Connesson
Yüksel-Barbeillon.
11.30:
Cenet-Forthomme
Tasdemir-Kasidokostas.