LAUSANNE - On the first day of the Lausanne Billard Masters, Eddy Merckx and Semih Sayginer are the first players with a maximum score out of two matches. The Belgian and the Turk have almost certainly qualified for the quarter-finals, which will be played later today (Saturday). The opening of the tournament, which is held for the eighth time, showed some remarkable matches with big margin in the score.
Eddy Merckx in Group B first beat Nikolaus Kogelbauer 40-27 in 38 and in his second appearance Dion Nelin 40-21 in 18. The Dane had started with a comfortable victory over Dani Sánchez, the World Cup winner in Veghel one week ago. Sánchez was far down in that match with Nelin: 40-15 in 16 innings, an excellent match for the Dane with a 2,500 on average. In his second match, however, Nelin was put on hold by Merckx. He has to win his last against Kogelbauer anyway and then depends on the Merckx-Sánchez match. In this Group B, three players can even finish with two match points. Then, the average will decide.
Jun Tae Kim had the best start in Group C, beating Torbjörn Blomdahl 40-32 in 28 innings. The Korean, the only player from the Asian countries, shone with a 14 run, the best on the first day. Therese Klompenhouwer had a wonderful start in this flight. The world champion, who didn't have the best performance in Veghel, showed her high class, among others with a run of 12. At the end of the match, there were chances for the Dutch lady to win, but Tasdemir escaped 40-38 in 30 innings: a great 1,310 for Therese.
In this group only two matches were played.
Semih Sayginer is the unbeaten leader in Group A with four match points, ahead of Roland Forthomme and Jérémy Bury with two points and Michel Boulaz who still is on zero. Sayginer first beat Bury 40-31 in 24 innings and in his second appearance Boulaz with a resounding 40-4 in 17. Bury kept his chances by beating Forthomme 40-7 in 23, another remarkable margin in the score. Forthomme had started the Masters with a win over Boulaz: 40-20 in 33 innings.
The first quarter-finals with the numbers 1 and 2 from each group will be played tonight, Saturday, at 19.00 and 21.15.
The rankings:Group A:
1 Semih Sayginer 2-4-80-41-1,951-12
2 Jérémy Bury 2-2-71-46-1,543-9
3 Roland Forthomme 2-2-47-55-0,854-6
4 Michel Boulaz 2-0-25-48-0,520-5
Matches today, Saturday:
12.15: Sayginer-Forthomme, Bury-Boulaz
Group B:
1 Eddy Merckx 2-4-80-56-1,428-13
2 Dion Nelin 2-2-61-33-1,848-11
3 Dani Sánchez 2-2-55-35-1,571-10
4 Nikolaus Kogelbauer 2-0-52-58-0,896-8
Matches today:
14.30: Merckx-Sánchez, Nelin-Kogelbauer
Group C:
1 Jun Tae Kim 1-2-40-28-1,428-14
2 Tayfun Tasdemir 1-2-40-30-1,333-6
3 Therese Klompenhouwer 1-0-38-30-1,310-12
4 Torbjörn Blomdahl 1-0-32-28-1,142-4.
Matches today:
10.00: Tasdemir-Kim, Blomdahl-Klompenhouwer
16.45: Klompenhouwer-Kim, Blomdahl-Tasdemir
Quarter finals
