SITTARD - The top players in Dutch three-cushion enter the final phase of the Sittard Grand Prix in Limburg, today, Saturday. The qualification for the Masters is at stake, also the prestige battle between players like Dick Jaspers, Jeffrey Jorissen, Jean Paul de Bruijn, Glenn Hofman, Dave Christiani and other contenders for high rankings. Volkan Cetin's closing match, in the final preliminary, was one of high class on Friday night. In the last session, the Brabant player grabbed the top spot in his group of four, in which he showed Jean Paul de Bruijn a glimpse of his class in that last game: 40-12 in 19 innings, 2.105 on average and a near-by final run of 11. Cetin played formidably in that match and faces Dave Christiani in the first knock-outs today.
The knock-outs with 16 start at 11.00 am facing already some interesting games like Jean van Erp against Frans van Schaik, Dick Jaspers against Joey de Kok, Raymund Swertz against Huub Wilkowski and Barry van Beers against Jerry Hermans.
Volkan Cetin (4 match points, 1.375), Raymund Swertz (6-1.411), Barry van Beers (4-1.100) and Roland Uijtdewillegen (4-1.258) were the last four group winners. They were followed to the knock-outs by the runners-up from that final round: Huub Wilkowski (4-1,223), Joey de Kok (4-1,077), Dave Christiani (4-1,246) and Jean Paul de Bruijn (4-1,352).
Most interesting for the statistics was Group E, where two young Zeeland players met. Joris van 't Zelfden, the younger of the two, beat Joey de Kok 40-31 (38) in the first round, but De Kok recovered from that loss and beat Barry van Beers 40-30 in 39, which earned him the qualification, also because Joris van 't Zelfden was beaten by Wilco Meusen 40-38 in 34.
Sam van Etten is also surprisingly absent when it gets to the finals today. The North-Holland player started not that good against Roland Uijtdewillegen, losing 40-29 in 32, but then he won against Ludo Kools (40-30 in 34) and finally against Huub Wilkowski 40-24 in 24. That last strong game was just not enough to raise his average further up. Roland Uijtdewillegen, Huub Wilkowski and Sam van Etten finished with 4 match points, the averages indicating numbers 1, 2 and 3: Uijtdewillegen 1.258, Wilkowski 1.223, Van Etten 1.211.
Raymund Swertz achieved the maximum score in Group D, in which he beat Dave Christiani, among others, with generous score: 40-11 in 22. In the group led by Volkan Cetin, Jack van Peer and John van der Stappen fell short of qualification.
The schedule for the last sixteen, today, Saturday:
11.00:
Dick Jaspers-Joey de Kok
Barry van Beers-Jerry Hermans
Raymund Swertz-Huub Wilkowski
Volkan Cetin-Dave Christiani
13.00:
Glenn Hofman-Jack Wijnen
Roland Uijtdewillegen-Jean Paul de Bruijn
Frans van Schaik-Jean van Erp
Jeffrey Jorissen-Adrie Demming.
Matches to be seen at:
https://www.youtube.com/@debiljartacademietafel112/streams