SHARM EL SHEIKH - The first knock-out rounds at the World Three-cushion Championship have delivered some interesting pairings. Torbjörn Blomdahl, the reigning champion, plays against Eddy Merckx. Dick Jaspers faces Haeng Jik Kim, Sung-won Choi plays Choong Bok Lee and Dani Sánchez meets Martin Horn.
The full schedule is:
14.00 (Egyptian time)
Coklu-Tellez
Nelin-Ceulemans
Gutierrez-Heo
SW Choi-Lee
16.00
Legazpi-Nilsson
WY Choi-Kools
Zanetti-Costa
Polychronopoulos-Lindemann
18.00
Bury-Seo
Teran-Garcia
Sidhom-O
Jaspers-HJ Kim
20.00
Cenet-Gonzalez
Sánchez-Horn
Blomdahl-Merckx
Tasdemir-Nadi.
The Turks Murat Naci Coklu and Tayfun Tasemir, from the country where Semih Sayginer was so surprisingly eliminated on Wednesday night, head the list of best ranked players. Frenchman Jérémy Bury completes the list of top 3 players with 4 match points and best averages. The match schedule for the knock-out games with the best 32 players was made according to the sixteen groups that were played in these days. Today at 14.00 in Egypt (13.00 West Europe) are the first matches for the knock-out phase with 32.
The first group with 4 match points was:
1 Murat Naci Coklu 4-2,424-8
2 Tayfun Tasdemir 4-2.105-10
3 Jérémy Bury 4-1,904-7
4 Nikos Polychronopoulos 4-1,860-8
5 Wan Young Choi 4-1,666-6
6 Sameh Sidhom 4-1,538-7
7 Lütfi Cenet 4-1,538-7
7 Sung won Choi 4-1,311-6
8 Mauricio Gutierrez 4-1,269-11
The numbers 1 of the groups with 3 match points:
1 Dani Sánchez 3-2,162-9
2 Dick Jaspers 3-2,000-10
3 Ruben Legazpi 3-1,777-7
4 Marco Zanetti 3-1.666-12
5 Javier Teran 3-1,509-9
6 Eddy Merckx 3-1,509-8
The number 1 of the group with 2 points
1 Dion Nelin 2-1.565-10
The best numbers 2 (with 3 match points) are:
1 Peter Ceulemans 3-1.904-9
2 Torbjörn Blomdahl 3-1.666-10
3 Jose Juan Garcia 3-1.509-7
4 Rui Costa 3-1.333-15
5 Michael Nilsson 3-1,194-7
6 Haeng Jik Kim 3-1,159-5
The numbers 2 with 2 match points
1 Martin Horn 2-1,948-9
2 Jung Han Heo 2-1,652-12
3 Choong Bok Lee 2-1,431-9
4 Pedro Gonzalez 2-1,300-9
5 Takeshima O 2-1,280-6
6 Ludo Kools 2-1,270-5
7 Ronny Lindemann 2-1,200-11
8 Chang Hoon Seo 2-1,196-10
9 Riad Nady 2-1,089-8
10 Erick Tellez 2-0.933-4