Two Dutch guys in a main role

HURGHADA - What they can do in the Netherlands, with our team, we can show here as well. Richard de Bruin and Kees Wittens were full of admiration, speaking about the players in their team in the Dutch league. Two wins this weekend, a good position in the ranking.

They had a poor start themselves, in the World Cup in Hurghada. ,,We did very bad, I don't know what happened'', commented Richard de Bruin, who nevertheless took two victories and advanced to next round.

Kees Wittens had a lousy start as well, but he recovered and slipped along to the second day.

How different was the start today. The two Dutch players were the absolute stars in the first session. Richard de Bruin defeated Guus van Grunsven 15-9, 15-11 (average 1.500). Kees Wittens sealed victory against the Turk Muhammed Cavusoglu: 2-0 (1.428).

The level is better, although at many tables the start was not that impressive.

Bart Ceulemans played one of those bad matches and could not beat the Egyptian Mohamed Zayed. ,,I have to be focussed on my next match against a Korean player now'', he said.

Monique van Hamond had a promising start, but then lost her way in the final sets against Greek Ioannis Antoniou.

Gokham Salman, a strong Turkish player, showed that maybe he can survive a few days, the same as Dong Hoon Kim, one of the relatively unknown Koreans, who will face Kees Wittens tonight.