VEGHEL - The World Cup kick-off in Veghel on Sunday morning was a first performance of extremes. It was the first acquaintance with the hall, the tables and the audience, a long session characterized by wonderful, long, fast and bad games. The Austrian Gerhard Kostistansky made the best impression in the early hours with a 30-3 match in 12 innings. Irena Michálková struggled through a hard, poor start in front of the then still sparsely occupied stands and lost 30-20 in 65 innings. Joris van 't Zelfden, the Dutch junior champion, played the most exciting match in these first ball contacts, ending in 30-30 against the Frenchman Vincent Lelievre. The big sensation was that Kostistanski dropped out of the tournament after an anti-climax later on the day. And Belgian player Peter Ceulemans, who was supposed to enter the World Cuop on Wednesday, had to cancel because he tested positive on Corona.
At the end of the first day, German Murat Gökmen finished as the best group winner with 4 match points and 1,395 ahead of Turk Muammer Rahmet 1,250, Paul Bruijstens 1,224 and Berkay Karakurt 1,200. Gerhard Kostistanski had a brilliant start (30-3 in 12 against Mevissen), but was outplayed by Czech Jan Hudak in his next match, 30-28 in 43. The Dutch junior champion Joris van 't Zelfden was the best runner-up with 3 match points and was allowed to go to the next day as first substitute.
In the early hours, the match tables felt like ice rinks, as it is translated in billiard circles. With sliding balls, unnatural squares in the corners and for many of the participants in the so-called PPPQ preliminaries, an undesirable, awkward start. That improved when the sessions progressed and the cloths became playable. For some of the early birds, the game was already over. Giovan Batista Basile, for instance, an eccentric Italian, won his first match in 72 innings (the worst of all), but was counted out in the next round by the 72-year-old Dutchman Wil Janssen.
It was the day of some young, eager talents, like 21-year Korean girl Ji-eun Han, who won the New York final two years ago in a fight with Therese Klompenhouwer. With this lady, 'Terrie' beat two top teams in a Scotch Double tournament in Korea this summer: facing Tasdemir/Nguyen and Sayginer/Lee. Ji-eun Han returns tomorrow with a win and a loss, but a nice average 1,166.
This was also the day of Joris van 't Zelfden, the just 18-year old from Zeeland who so surprisingly won the Dutch Junior Championship. ''I felt some nerves in my first match'', the young architecture student commented later. ''That's why I lost a big lead, and I had to equalize in my last shot.'' He won his second match against Turk Cem Cemal Geyik, was passed by Frenchman Lelievre on position 1, but was lucky as the best loser out of sixteen groups and as a substitute for Schröder, the Dane who cancelled his World Cup entrance.
Joris van ‘t Zelfden owes his ticket to Jack van Peer, who pulled off a wonderful trick against Belgian Mik Durwael in one of the last games of the day. Both players could have reached three match points by playing a draw, the first in terms of average would have gone to the next round, the second as best loser. But in the closing stages, at 26-20 for Durwael, Jack van Peer scored the best run so far (9, just like Karl Makik). The Brabant player missed out on 29, after which Durwael reached 29 as well with a run of 3 and then missed his last. Jack van Peer returned to the table, scored the match-winner and became the group winner. Mik Durwael remained on 2 match points because of his loss. That allowed Joris van 't Zelfden, the only number 2 with 3 match points, to cheer for his place in the next round.
Nikolaus Kugelbauer, the Austrian, was also one of the young winners on the first day with four match points in his games against Eric Brousses and Irena Michálková. Berkay Karakurt did what was expected of him in a group with Christian Ahr (Germany) and Alain Saeijs (Belgium). Nick Dudink won his match against Herbert Thür, but was eliminated by German Murat Gökmen.
For the Dutch home crowd, there were some face-to-faces races on the first day. Jack Wijnen won in the earliest session the match with Rudy Gerritsen (30-16 in 33), afterwards they were both passed by Austrian Manfred Muller. Frans van Schaik had a kind of walk-over, defeated Menno de Vries (30-12 in 34) and later placed himself against Czech Fouad Sibai 30-13. Paul Bruijstens opened strongly against Sander Jonen (30-19 in 25), Jonen then won against Belgian Peter Willems, who was floored on his turn by Bruijstens, so that the Brabant player reached the next round.
The day rainking after the first day:
1 Murat Gökmen 4-1.395-6
2 Muammer Rahmet 4-1.250-6
3 Paul Bruijstens 4-1.224-7
4 Berkay Karakurt 4-1.200-6
5 Jack van Peer 4-1.176-9
6 Frans van Schaik 4-0.895-5
7 Ramazan Durdu 4-0.857-5
8 Jan Hudak 4-0.845-7
9 Marcel Dirn 4-0.769-5
10 Philip Coenen 4-0.722-4
11 Vahit Kunt 4-0.722-4
12 Nikolaus Kogelbauer 4-0.714-5
13 Wil Janssen 4-0.631-3
14 Vincent Lelievre 3-0.909-8
15 Manfred Muller 3-0.895-5
16 Ji-eun Han 2-1.166-6
First runner-up and in the next round for tomorrow:
Joris van 't Zelfden 3-0.789-4
The most remarkable groups for the second day, Tuesday:
Kay de Zwart with Wil Janssen
Nikolaus Kogelbauer with Jean Reverchon
Harrie van de Ven with Bart Ceulemans
Jeffrey Jorissen with Jan Hudak and Tom Löwe
Maxime Panaia with Joey de Kok
Frans van Schaik with Raymund Swertz
Joris van 't Zelfden with Ronny Brants and Berkay Karakurt
Jack van Peer with Huub Wilkowski
Dave Christiani with Paul Bruijstens and Grégory Le Deventec.
The Italian Giovan Battista Basile, winning strike to start, but later out of the game on the first day
Joris van 't Zelfden, the Dutch junior champion, slipped through his first day and returns on stage tomorrow
Two Dudink brothers, Nick (who is out) and Leon with there father Ben in the stands
Gerhard Kostistanski, the best start of all, later outplayed in a match with Jan Hudak