SHARM EL SHEIKH - Top Turkish talent Burak Hashas and two ex-PBA players, Allen Schröder and Pierre Soumagne, led the rankings on Sunday evening on the first day of the Sharm El Sheikh World Cup. The averages were already pretty far apart: Dane Schröder was the best with four match points and 1.276, Belgian Wim van Droogenbroeck, a real billiard tourist, closed the row with 11 caroms in 69 innings (0.159 on average). The Turks were with five players in the first top 16 ranking, three young talents survived the first qualifiers: Burak Hashas, Tobias Bouerdick and Lukas Mortensen.
Dimitrios Seleventas, the Greek number two at this year's World Junior Championship following Burak Hashas, fell outside the qualifications, the same as Joris van 't Zelfden, the Dutch junior champion.
Belgian Philip Coenen was close to a sensational start: ,,I played against Burak Hashas, the world junior champion, and was ahead 19-11. Six innings later, I could congratulate him on his victory at 30-19, because he had a great finish. But I enjoyed my first World Cup immensely.''
The second day has now started with a couple of interesting threesomes in the 16 groups. For instance, Pierre Soumagne and Huub Wilkowski, two teammates in the Netherlands, meet in a trio with strong Korean Jun Hyuk Son. Burak Hashas, the junior world champion, plays against Joey de Kok from the Netherlands. Sam van Etten starts his World Cup against Dane Nalle Olsson and Spaniard Daniel Sainz Pardo. And among the best-known players on this second day are Omer Karakurt, Thomas Andersen and Tonny Carlsen.
The top 10 after the first day of play:
1 Allen Schroeder 4-1,276-5
2 Pierre Soumagne 4-1,224-6
3 Burak Hashas 4-1,153-6
4 Thomas Kerl 4-1,090-6
5 Ye Sung Jeong 4-1,034-6
6 Tobias Bouerdick 4-1,016-5
7 Savas Gungor 4-1,000-10
8 Inci Cihan 4-0,967-6
9 Vincent Lelievre 4-0.833-7
10 Sinasi Dogan 4-0.821-4
