BURSA - The opening day at the World Cup in Bursa, Turkey, was marked by the come-back of three players on the global stage. Filipos Kasidokostas and Ahmet Bayatli finished the first day of pre-rounds with the maximum profit and will return to the tournament tomorrow. Gerhard Kostistansky qualified as well, with one win and a draw. The Turk Turgay Orak was the best of 48 players in the first round with four match points and 1.621. Another player from the hosting country, Ilhan Ürküt, did even better with 1.735, played the best day match (40 in 13 against Peker), but lost his match against Kostistansky 30-29 in 21 innings. As the first of the best losers, he deserved a place in the second tournament round.
Filipos Kasidokostas, who is forced to play left-handed due to chronic problems with his right arm, won his two matches against Recep Bulut and Frank Spruzina, averaging 1.333. Gerhard Kostistanski played a draw against Peker, but thanks to his 30-29 win against Ürküt, the Austrian was the 15th and penultimate player in the winners group with 1,276.
The Turkish home players in the Bosphorus hotel in Antalya were with 7 men in the sixteen group winners, Korea had 4 players, Greece 1, Germany 1, the Netherlands 1, Japan 1 and Austria 1. Hyun-Suk Kim was the best of the Koreans with 4 match points and 1.463. The best run of ten came to the name of two players: the Germans Ramazan Durdu and Cengiz Karaca. Ahmet Bayatli finished in the top five with 1.333, Namiko Hayashi, one of the better ladies at world level, was 12th with 0.923. Jordy de Kruyf, one of three Dutch in the starting field, finished 0.789 over two matches, but made it to the next round with four match points.
The sixteen group winners on Monday:
1 Turgay Orak 4-1.621-6
2 Hyun-Suk Kim 4-1.463-9
3 Muammer Rahmet 4-1.428-5
4 Filipos Kasidokostas 4-1.333-8
5 Ahmet Bayatli 4-1.333-6
6 Hamit Akkaya 4-1.304-7
7 Sung Uk Oh 4-1.224-5
8 Ahmet Koseoglu 4-1.176-7
9 Dongjun Park 4-1.153-7
10 Ramazan Durdu 4-1.132-10
11 Kyung-Nam Ko 4-1.052-7
12 Namiko Hayashi 4-0.923-4
13 Vedat Yilmaz 4-0.821-7
14 Jordy de Kruyf 4-0.789-5
15 Gerhard Kostistansky 3-1.276-9
16 Mehmet Aksoy 2-1.115-8.
The group formats on the second day:
Group A: In-Won Kan, Barry van Beers, Mehmet Aksoy
Group B: Hakan Incekara, Gerhard Kostistansky, Duc Anh Chien Nguyen
Group C: Trung Hau Do Nguyen, Jordy de Kruijf, Giuseppe Tiranno
Group D: Gwendal Maréchal, Christian Rudolph, Vedat Yilmaz
Group E: Namiko Hayashi, Gungor Bastunali, Jung Wan Lim
Group F: Yusuke Mori, Sang Ku Kang, Kyung-Nam Ko
Group G: Savas Bulut, Ramazan Durdu, Allen Schröder
Group H: Savas Güngor, Ilhan Ürküt, Dongjun Park
Group I: Omer Karakurt, Gülsen Degener, Ahmet Koseoglu
Group J: Nalle Olsson, Sung Il Jeong, Sung Uk Oh
Group K: Sung Kyu Oh, Naser Awwad, Hamit Akkaya
Group L: Cengiz Karaka, Sylvia Eckel, Ahmet Bayatli
Group M: Chang Hoon Seo, Filipos Kasidokosstas, Claus Maurer
Group N: Hiroshi Sasaki, Quang Hai Dinh, Muammer Rahmet
Group O: Apostolos Balogiannis, Hyun-Suk Kim, Carlos Crespo
Group P: Turgay Orak, Manol Minaoglu, Ronald van Geyt.
Gerhard Kostistansky qualified after 30-29 win against the best of the day: Ilhan Ürküt
The World Cup venue is in the Bosphorus hotel in Antalya