PORTO - The World Cup in the Portuguese city of Porto is three days underway, the excitement and quality of play are rising. On the third day of play, the Vietnamese launched another wonderboy, TTT Nguyen, to shine. The averages raised close to two, Huberney Cataño was the day's winner, Peter De Backer was in top three on this third day and Frédéric Caudron just managed to finish in the top five. The star player of the day, however, was Tran Thanh Nguyen, a young Vietnamese, who led 30-1 in his match against Claus Maurer, a 54-year-old Austrian, and made a top run of 21. This year's 4th World Cup at FC Porto's sports arena has definitely start the engines. The most striking match came out of the cue of TTT Nguyen, who by far outplayed the routine Claus Maurer by an amazing run of 21: after 31-1, there was a final score 35-8 in 23 innings. Colombian Huberney Cataño was the day's winner in the group with Jef Philipoom, TTT Nguyen was number 2 ahead of Peter De Backer and 22-year-old Greek Dimitrios Seleventas.
Frédéric Caudron, the undisputed star on the first days, remained unbeaten again, but was ranked number 5 now with 1.666 average.
57-year-old Belgian Peter De Backer still now and then makes his presence in a World Cup, and always a little sensation is coming up. De Backer even surpassed his illustrious compatriot Caudron in average this day. De Backer must have secretly enjoyed his whort come-back in a World Cup. ’’I rarely play in World Cups anymore,'' he explained. ’’Only in Egypt do I like to come and nearby, in Veghel, I will play. And if the balls roll well for me, I can still shine,'' said the Belgian, who finished third in a World championship three cushion three times in his career.
The young players in this World Cup came into focus on this third day. Dimitrios Seleventas (22) was 4th with 1.750, Amir Ibraimov (16) finished 9th with 1.521 and Maxime Panaia was 16th and last winner of his group with 1.196.
For the Netherlands, Huub Wilkowski was able to qualify after the smallest win against Joey de Kok (40-39) and also a win over Tarik Yavuz.
The final qualification promises a lot of interesting matches. For instance, Sam van Etten will play in a rock-solid group with Frédéric Caudron and Ruben Legazpi, Roland Forthomme and Peter De Backer are facing Jean Paul de Bruijn, three former team mates in a great battle. Glenn Hofman and Jeffrey Jorissen will play in the same group again and Peter Ceulemans meets Turks Omer Karakurt and Ahmet Alp.
The 12 groups for Wednesday in the final qualifiers:
Group A: Huub Wilkowski, Javier Vera, Jérémy Bury
Group B: Atsushi Kiyota, Mehmet Goren, Nikos Polychronopoulos
Group C: Sergio Jimenez, Jose Maria Mas, Chang Hoon Seo
Group D: Maxime Panaia, Amir Ibraimov, Tolgahan Kiraz
Group E: Mashhour Abu Tayeh, Birol Uymaz, Hong Chiem Thai
Group F: Omer Karakurt, Ahmet Alp, Peter Ceulemans
Group G: Berkay Karakurt, Gerhard Kostistansky, Turgay Orak
Group H: Sam van Etten, Frédéric Caudron, Ruben Legazpi
Group I: Gökhan Salman, Dimitrios Seleventas, Gwendal Maréchal
Group J: Roland Forthomme, Peter De Backer, Jean Paul de Bruijn
Group K: Jeffrey Jorissen, Glenn Hofman, Tran Thanh Tu Nguyen
Group L: Thanh Luc Tran, Huberney Cataño, Bong Joo Hwang
Huberney Cartaño was the day's best on Tuesday
Peter De Backer, a short come-back in the World Cup cycle
16 year young Amir Ibraimov in the 16 group winners
Young Greek Dimitrios Seleventas finished in top 5
The ranking with the winners of the groups on Tuesday
- Huberney Cataño 4-1,842-6
- Tran Thanh Tu Nguyen 4-1,794-21
- Peter De Backer 4-1,794-12
- Dimitrios Seleventas 4-1,750-10
- Frédéric Caudron 4-1,666-10
- Turgay Orak 4-1,590-12
- Ahmet Alp 4-1,590-10
- Birol Uymaz 4-1,555-6
- Amir Ibraimov 4-1,521-9
- Jose Maria Mas 4-1,428-7
- Mehmet Goren 4-1,296-9
- Javier Vera 4-1,228-7
- Huub Wilkowski 4-1,014-6
- Atsushi Kiyota 3-1,029-7
- Sergio Jimenez 2-1,545-11
- Maxime Panaia 2-1,196-5