Two early stars at the tables: Mas and Kang

ANTALYA - How beautiful can it be watching billiards in the early morning with some absolute stars at the tables in the World Cup in Antalya. The Spaniard Jose Maria Mas crossed swords in a spectacular battle with the Turk Yilmaz Özcan, which he won 15-14 in the deciding set.  The Korean Inwon Kang, who lives in Germany, was superior in his duel with Manolis Minaoglu, averaging 1.578 over two sets.

Most eyes were pointed on the match between Yilmaz Özcan and Jose Maria Mas, two favorites in their group who will face the Italian Emilio Sciacca later this day.

Jose Maria Mas (30) is from Matadepara near Terrassa and plays for the Spanish league in the Coral Colon team with Dani Sánchez, Carlos Crespo and Ricardo Garcia.
 
Yilmaz Özcan (40) is best known as the player who was the first Turk winning a World Cup in 1997: the CEB World Cup in Bolzano, where he beat Martin Horn in the final.

The game between the Spaniard and the Turk was limping on two legs: Mas won the first set 15-9 in 9 innings, Özcan the second 15-8 in 8. In the final stage, the two players tied on to the finish.
 
Mas closed a 12-6 backlog with a great run of 6, took a 13-12 advantage with a fantastic bankshot, but then missed another bankshot to close the match. Two innings the score was 14-14: Özcan and Mas missed for the matchball, the Turk in his last attempt with a short-long-short bankshot. Then the Spaniard finished under pression with a round the table shot.

The Korean Inwon Kang, who lives with the junior world champion Haeng Jik Kim in Ludwigshafen, also had a perfect start of the tournament. He defeated Manol Minaoglu with beining in danger (15-10, 15-7) and put the third player in the group, the strong Austrian Gerhard Kostistansky) under pressure.

Joel Switala couldn't show his class in the opening. The Frenchman lost in the group, where he will met in his next match Jean Paul de Bruijn, 2-0 against Emre Dursun.