WONJU - Two world top players lead the rankings unbeaten after the first group stage with 48 players at the World 3-cushion Grand Prix in Wonju. The Korean top event, where the winner will go home with €100,000 euros and the runner-up with €45,000 euros next week, enters the second part from tomorrow, Sunday, with six groups of five players. Dick Jaspers won all his 7 matches in the preliminary stage, Quyet Chien Tran, the Vietnamese, won 6 times and played 1 draw. The other group winners were Marco Zanetti, Haeng Jik Kim, Tayfun Tasdemir and Dani Sánchez.
Dick Jaspers, who won the first Grand Prix in 2021, noted after the first preliminaries: ''I won all my matches, but it really is a rock-hard system. You cannot weaken for a moment in a match, because all opponents can strike ruthlessly. We are once again confronted with the laws that top sport is tough and hard, that the short sets can bring thrills, but we are used to dealing with that.''
How vulnerable even top players can be in the format of the Grand Prix in South Korea was shown by young Korean Myung Woo Cho, the last World Cup winner in Sharm El Sheikh, who was eliminated in Dick Jaspers' group as number six in the final standings. The little Korean thus grabs next to the top prizes in this tournament, in which almost all other world top players continue with a group stage leading to the finals with 16 players.
What has the Grand Prix in Wonju brought so far in the 161 matches to two sets won?
Dick Jaspers was the best in match points (21) and best in average with 2,142. Quyet Chien Tran shone with the highest run of 19. Tayfun Tasdemir made the most caroms in one match (56), spread over three sets with 27, 15 and 14, followed by Haeng Jik Kim with 51 and Quyet Chien Tran both with 51 points and Duc Anh Chien Nguyen with 50. Ruben Legazpi achieved the best average in 1 match: He beat Alessio D'Agata 2-0 and 4,500 average (45 caroms in 10 innings).
The tournament ran into a strange ending as two Koreans, Chang Hoon Seo and Jung Hee Lee, who met each other in the last match, had qualified in the rankings but were later not assigned to the next stage. The vague reports were that the two players had been disqualified, but no further announcements came from the Korean front and nothing was mentioned on the UMB website either. Portuguese Jose Miguel Soares and Japanese Takao Miyashita were the designated replacements.
The overview of the groups:
The numbers 1 in the six groups were:
1 Dick Jaspers 7-21-2,142-13
2 Quyet Chien Tran 7-19-2,016-19
3 Marco Zanetti 7-18-1,943-14
4 Haeng Jik Kim 7-18-1,907-14
5 Tayfun Tasdemir 7-18-1,877-14
6 Dani Sánchez 6-13-1,890-12
Group A:
Dick Jaspers, Pedro Piedrabuena, Bong Joo Hwang, TTT Nguyen and Jun Tae Kim qualify. The three dropouts are Myung Woo Cho, Kwang Hyun Kim and Ga Yeon Jang. Myung Woo Cho did win his last match against Jang 2-0, but it was not enough to still pass Jun Tae Kim, who had 9 match points against Myung Woo Cho 8 points.
Group B:
The UMB, or the organisation, will explain tomorrow the disciplinary penalties handed out on late night. Chang Hoon Seo and Jung Hee Lee played against each other in the final day session, Seo won two sets, the third set was tied, but the two players, who finished fourth and fifth in the rankings of this Group B, were removed from the final result. The top three consisted of Dani Sánchez, Sung Won Choi and Nikos Polychronopoulos. Jose Miguel Soares was ranked number 6, but was later admitted to the next round.
Group C:
Young Dutchman Sam van Etten and 16-year-old Turk Burak Hashas were executioners in the final match of the day. Hashas won the first set 15-6 in 8, Van Etten the second 12-8 and in the deciding set the Dutchman was 11-4 too strong in 10 innings. As a result, he placed third in this group following Tayfun Tasdemir and Jong Han Heo and ahead of Murat Naci Coklu and Wan Young Choi. The latter results had eliminated Burak Hashas, Jose Juan Garcia and Noriko Fukao.
Group D:
Haeng Jik Kim was the comfortable group winner thanks to his victory over Torbjörn Blomdahl on the final day. The Korean won 2-0 (14-11 in 7, 20-11 in 5, 2.833 on average). Huberney Cataño played his way to fifth position in his last match, at the expense of Takao Miyashita, who, however, was still admitted to the next round due to the penalties handed out.
Group E:
Quyet Chien Tran was the best man in this group with six wins and 1 loss (19 match points) ahead of Hyung Kon Kim and Sameh Sidhom with 16 and 15. Well behind them, Dion Nelin finished as number 4 and Ruben Legazpi as number 5. The players eliminated were Alessio D'Agata, Mahmoud Ayman and Korean Jieu Han.
Group F:
Eddy Merckx was the better of Marco Zanetti in a magnificent match in one of the last group stages (2-1, 2-24 in 4, 15-4 in 7, 25-6 in 4, averages 3,000/2,266, run of 15 for Merckx). Duc Anh Chien Nguyen and Su Yeon Park joined the two leaders, both with 12 points. Pedro Gonzalez passed Therese Klompenhouwer and Jun Hyuk Son with his latest win, bringing him to 9 points just like Son. The players who were eliminated were Son, Klompenhouwer and Kogelbauer.
The qualifiers with 30 players in six groups of five to be played on Sunday and Monday (best nrs 1 and 2 and four best 3rd to the final rounds with 16):
Group A:
Dick Jaspers, Sameh Sidhom, Sung Won Choi, Jose Maria Soares, Wan Young Choi
Group B:
Quyet Chien Tran, Myeong Jong Cha, Dion Nelin, Huberney Catano, Bong Joo Hwang
Group C:
Haeng Jik Kim, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Pedro Piedrabuena, TTT Nguyen, Ruben Legazpi
Group D:
Marco Zanetti, Eddy Merckx, Choong Bok Lee, Duc Anh Chien Nguyen, Pedro Gonzalez
Group E:
Tayfun Tasdemir, Jung Han Heo, Murat Naci Coklu, Jun Tae Kim, Sam van Etten
Group F:
Dani Sánchez, Nikos Polychronopoulos, Hyung Kon Kim, Takao Miyashita, Su Yeong Park.
Quyet Chien Tran, unbeaten like Jaspers, best run of 19
Torbjörn Blomdahl among the qualified players
Dani Sánchez, leading player in the group with Sung Wan Choi and Nikos Polychronopoulos
Young Dutchman Sam van Etten beat 16-year Turk Burak Hashas in his last and is among the players for the final rounds