ANTALYA - The World Cup in Antalya is done with the first warm-up, but is still two days away from the final rounds. The level was not so high in the first days as in other World Cups, but the fireworks are coming up very soon. Tomorrow, Wednesday, several famous names enter the hall in the Starlight Hotel, like Dion Nelin, Chi Yeon Cho, Xuan Cuong Ma and Jose Juan Garcia. And on the final day of the pre-rounds (Thursday), a gala of champions will be marching into the hall.
Just a few of the best who temporarily lost sight on the way to the top ranked places: Torbjörn Blomdahl, Dani Sánchez, Haeng-Jik Kim, Dong-Koong Kang and Nikos Polychronopoulos. And also on the hunt for the better positions are Martin Horn, Filippos Kasidokostas, Eddy Leppens, Tonny Carlsen, David Martinez, Robinson Morales and Roland Forthomme. For those who did not realize it , it will be a hard fight in the next days to reach the finals in the first World Cup this year.
At the end of the second day, the unknown Turk Kulak led the ranking with four points and 1.666, followed by In-Won Kang, Antonio Montes, Glenn Hofman, Ahmet Alp and Ronny Lindemann, some players who fire the imagination. Gwendal Maréchal, the young French promise that started with a two-average-victory, was defeated by Ivo Gazdos in his second. He was saved by the bell with a better average than his two competitors.
Emrullah Basegmez, a good start as well (30 in 17), even went out in his second match against In-Won Kang. The 43-year-old Korean played in the Netherlands and Germany between 2010 and 2015, even for some years with Haeng-Jik Kim, because it was their dream to play in Europe. In-Won Kang disturbed Emrullah's dream when he defeated him 30-27 in 15 innings. It was the strongest group on this second day with Basegmez averaging 1.781 and Kang 1.578.
Antonio Montes showed his regularity with matches in 21 and 19 innings (1.500), Glenn Hofman was good in his first (2.000), but vulnerable in his second, in which he was saved by Lukas Stamm's bad finish. Omer Karakurt was sent out by Murat Tüzül, Sung Kyu Oh by Ahmet Alp and Le Hoang by Savas Bulut. And Peter Ceulemans was knocked down after one match, because of his hopeless start. The un-known Korean Sun-Woong Lee was his painful tormentor 30-10 loss in 19 innings.
The day ranking on the second day:
1 Adem Kulak 4-1.666-6
2 In-Won Kang 4-1.578-9
3 Antonio Montes 4-1.500-9
4 Glenn Hofman 4-1.250-7
5 Ahmet Alp 4-1.224-5
6 Ronny Lindemann 4-1.224-6
7 Sung Il Jeong 4-1.176-8
8 Sun-Woong Lee 4-1.153-5
9 Mehmet Goren 4-1.111-5
10 Serdar Bas 4-0.952-8
11 Manol Minaoglu 4-0.923-5
12 Herbert Szivacz 4-0.895-6
13 Murat Tüzül 3-1.153-7
14 Gwendal Maréchal 2-1.414-8
15 Savas Bulut 2-1.113-6
16 Jordy de Kruijf 2-0.907-7.
Gwendal Maréchal, a great start followed by a loss in his second match
Glenn Hofman is in the top of the day ranking with two wins
Peter Ceulemans, back home after a bad start
Turkish player Ahmet Alp: top five on the second day