World CupAnkara (Turkey)

Two masters on top in World Cup: Bury and Poly

06/12/2024

Published by frits bakker

Jérémy Bury, the day's winner in the last qualifications up to the main draw

ANKARA - Two masters of the game in the World Cup in Ankara, who are on the hunt for the top of the world rankings, came up as the best winners from the qualifications on the last day of the preliminary rounds. Jérémy Bury was the best with 4 match points and 1,951 on average, Nikos Polychronopoulos the number two with 4 match points and 1,860. They were followed in the daily rankings by Omer Karakurt, Gökhan Salman and Peter Ceulemans. The Turkish revelation Volkan Cimentepe was the sixth player with the maximum 4 match points. The 12 winners were made up of 6 Turks, 2 Vietnamese, 2 Greeks, 1 Frenchman and 1 Belgian. Three reserve players will follow them to the main draw: Chang Hoon Seo, Sam van Etten and Ruben Legazpi. The number 4 of those runners-up, Glenn Hofman from the Netherlands, was actually eliminated, but was surprised by an extra ticket for the main tournament with the best 32, because Colombian Pedro Gonzalez, who had received a wild card, had withdrawn due to health problems.

Glenn Hofman immediately meets his compatriot and number 1 in the world: Dick Jaspers in his first match. The draw also paired three Koreans (Myung Woo Cho, Chang Hoon Seo and Jung Han Heo), among others. Eddy Merckx will play against world champion Phuong Vinh Bao on his first day of play. Haeng Jik Kim faces three Turks, including Tayfun Tasdemir.

The last qualification meant the elimination for Burak Hashas, Jeffrey Jorissen, Jean Paul de Bruijn, Ja In Kang, Pierre Soumagne and Roland Forthomme.

The most curious match was played by Dutchman Jeffrey Jorissen, who showed up in a dramatic opening match against young Turk Denizcan Akkoca (0.682 on average). The Dutchman's revenge was resounding: in his match with the other young Turk, Burak Hashas, Jorissen started with 10 and 15 in his first five innings: a lead of 30-10 in 5. That was not enough to qualify for the main draw.

The draw for the first round of the main with 32 on Thursday (from 10am Turkish time):

Group A: Dick Jaspers, Glenn Hofman, Nikos Polychronopoulos, Ruben Legazpi

Group B: Quyet Chien Tran, Sam van Etten, Jérémy Bury, Tolgahan Kiraz

Group C: Myung Woo Cho, Chang Hoon Seo, Jung Han Heo, Berkay Karakurt

Group D: Torbjörn Blomdahl, Myeong Jong Cha, Omer Karakurt, Hong Chiem Thai

Group E: Eddy Merckx, Gökhan Salman, Phuong Vinh Bao, Thanh Luc Tran

Group F: Jun Tae Kim, Denizcan Akkoca, Martin Horn, Peter Ceulemans

Group G: Haeng Jik Kim, Tayfun Tasdemir, Volkan Cimentepe, Muammer Rahmet

Group H: Marco Zanetti, Kostas Kokkoris, Sameh Sidhom, Turgay Orak.

The overviews of the groups on Thursday:

Group A:

Jérémy Bury's favorite role immediately announced itself with a generous 40-12 in 17 against his compatriot Kévin Vasseur. The Korean Jun Hyuk Sun keeps the tension going with a win over Vasseur, but in the mutual dispute Jérémy is again far too strong: he wins again 40-12 and ends with 1,961.

Group B:

Maxime Panaia escapes at the end of the match against Burhan Genc, which the Frenchman wins 40-37 in 27, but Nikos Polychronopoulos does the same in 20 innings. The Greek and the young Frenchman play to qualify for the main draw, Nikos makes a run of 10 and wins 40-34 in 23. That brings him to a nice score of 1,800.

Group C:

The Turkish/German match between Turgay Orak and Amir Ibraimov is decided by the more experienced player from the home country, who wins 40-29 in 30. Chang Hoon Seo does the same against Ibraimov (40-23 in 34), after which Orak- Seo decides the outcome. The Turk and the Korean play a draw in 24 innings, Orak is the group winner with 3 points and 1,481, ahead of Seo with 3 points and 1,379.

Group D:

Seymen Ozbas, one of the young Turks, has a little luck in his first match against Ja In Kang, whom he beats 40-36 in a difficult match in 42 innings. Ja In Kang in turn wins against Hong Chiem Thai, who then decides the three-man group with a win over Ozbas: 3 players with 2 match points, Thai with 1,172 the best.

Group E:

Peter Ceulemans is the first player from the low lands to qualify for the main draw. He does it at the end of Group E. Herbert Szivacz takes an option for group win against Mashhour Abu Tayeh, but will also have to pass Ceulemans later. That doesn't work, because the Belgian is superior in his two games with 40-19 and 40-28. In his second match, Ceulemans shows his best with a nice 2,000 on average, good for 1,454 in total.

Group F:

One of the most curious matches in the opening rounds is the fight between Daniel Moreno and Omer Karakurt. The Colombian starts furiously with 8, 11, 1 and 5 (23-1) and prepares for a quick win. At the end of the game, Moreno fails: with a score of 39 in 18, he misses the match ball six times, after which Karakurt takes the win from 39-29, ultimately with a final run of 6: 40-39 in 23. The Spaniard Ruben Legazpi wins 40-35 against Moreno, the match for group victory is a prey for Karakurt, who overpowers Legazpi 40-34 in 23.

Group G:

Volkan Cimentepe, the Turk who knocked ex-professional Birol Uymaz out of the World Cup in the first round, will advance to the main tournament after a strong preliminary phase. He wins his last qualifying group ahead of Yavuz and Kostistanski with comfortable victories of 40-20 and 40-27, albeit the latter in 42 innings. Still, it is enough to survive that long series of preliminaries.

Group H:

In the end it turned out the best for Kostas Kokkoris and Sam van Etten and was there a mediocre performance for Roland Forthomme. The Greek and the Dutchman first play each other in a draw in 39 innings. Then they both beat Forthomme: the Greek 40-25 in 27, the Dutchman 40-34 in 29. Both end with 3 match points, one continues as group winner, the other as one of the three runners-up.

Group I:

It is between Gökhan Salman and Glenn Hofman in the final part as both players beat Lukas Stam, the German who eliminated Caudron on Tuesday. Hofman is the best starter in the mutual match with Salman (17-8), the Turk returns to the match after 5 consecutive misses by Hofman. The score is 25-25, Hofman has another bad phase and Salman finishes with 8 (40-34 in 28). According to the final scores, the Dutchman's high average (1,644) is not good enough to finish among the three best numbers two. He nevertheless becomes the fourth loser and is fortunate that the Colombian Gonzalez (wildcard) has canceled due to health problems, so that Hofman can join the best 32.

Group J:

Muammer Rahmet has the strongest nerves when he reaches the finish with 3 in his last match against Bong Joo Hwang and the Korean is also able to equalize with 3. Because of that draw, Rahmet is the group winner with 3 match points.

Group K:

The tension rises to a peak at the end of this group, where the Vietnamese Thanh Luc Tran, Pierre Soumagne and Jean Paul de Bruijn have a chance to win the group until the last caroms. In the end it is the Vietnamese, who beats Pierre Soumagne by 1 carom (the Frenchman scores 2 instead of 3 for the equalizer). It can go three ways in those last minutes, but Tran is the best in average of three players with 2 match points. Pierre Soumagne misses his last point to become the group winner with 3 match points. And Jean Paul de Bruijn is short in average compared to Tran: 1,530 for the Vietnamese, 1,460 for De Bruijn.

Group L:

What a dazzling finish for Jeffrey Jorissen when it was already too late. The Dutchman starts his match against Burak Hashas with 10 in the 3rd inning, adds 15 in the 5th inning and has a 30-10 lead after five innings. It does help him win against Hashas (40-34 in 17), but the group win has already been given to Denizcan Akkoca, the Greek with two European junior titles, who beatsJorissen and draws against Hashas (3 points 1,025).

Greek Nikos Polychronopoulos, second folloing Bury in the day ranking