3-Cushion
HURGHADA - The first win of the day was for Javier Palazón, who left Turkish player Mehmet Goren far behind (40-15 in 21 innings). The ladies world champion Therese Klompenhouwer had a bad start, like the previous day, but was punished by Yavuz Güngördü this time. The chances to reach the main event for the Dutch lady are almost impossible.
The final day of qualifications at the World Cup in Hurghada started off with 12 Turks, 6 Koreans, 4 Belgians, 3 Greeks, 3 Dutch, 2 French and Germans, one Dane, one Austrian, one Vietnamese and one Spaniard.
They are divided into twelve groups of three, of with the group winners and the three best runners-up move on to the main tournament. The draw for tonight (Wednesday) will be done with the twelve top ranked players, 4 wildcard holders and sixteen players from the preliminary rounds.
Ronny Brants, first day's hero, was facing Ahmet Alp already on the early morning of the final group stages for his new mission at this World Cup. He had some bad luck this time at the end of his match: the Belgian lost on one carom (40-39 in 36 innings) and meets later today Jean Paul de Bruijn, one of the stars of the last World championship.
The match between two other Belgians, Eddy Leppens and Peter Ceulemans, was a first sign of Leppens' great form. The victory in the ranking tournament in Brussels last weekend (win in the semifinal against Caudron and in the final against Forthomme) was a welcome warm-up for Leppens, who took an early lead against Ceulemans and later continued to a victory in only thirteen innings: 40-15.
Eddy Leppens analyzed: ,,I played a match in which the balls were very kind for me and my opponent was facing many bad positions. I could come easily in my rhythm with some easy balls. Can you call that a good form? And you can say now that Ceulemans played poorly? I think it's not like that way. I can't explain the game of billiards sometimes. Just look at the World championship. I come there in a great shape to be outplayed without any chance by Forthomme.''
The third player in the group with the Belgians is the Greek Dionisis Toskantas.
The Dane Tonny Carlsen, who was in a distant past two times on the stage of a World championship, obviously had a bad wake-up for his match against Mark Dömer. The German had the longest breath in a very moderate match. Tonny Carlsen's equalizer couldn't repair the damage: 40-38 in 36.
Gokhan Salman was under pressure after the start of his match against his countryman Emrullah Basegmez, but escaped after the break. The billiard room owner from Istanbul won 40-35 in 30 innings. Frenchman Jean Reverschon lost on a few points against Vietnamese Ly The Vinh.
