LAS VEGAS - The real work in Las Vegas World Cup, with the entire world's top ranked players, brings the big names to the roulette today. Some famous players were already sensitively knocked out on the last qualifying day. Vietnamese Nguyen Quoc Nguyen led the day's ranking ahead of Jacob Haack Sörensen, Myeong Jong Cha, Antonio Montes and Huberney Cataño. Six of the 12 group winners were Asians, four Europeans finished in the top 12 and the following were eliminated in the preliminary round: Duc Anh Chien Nguyen, Lütfi Cenet, Jun Tae Kim.
It was doomsday for two well-known Colombians (Jose Juan Garcia and Robinson Morales). Two Dutch (Jeffrey Jorissen, Joey de Kok), Belgian Peter Ceulemans and a few strong Turks disappeared from the tournament. Pedro Gonzalez, the finalist of the World Championship in Viersen, Dion Nelin and Can Capak went along as best runners up with the twelve group winners and are in the main tournament with 32 players today (Thursday), divided over eight groups of 4 of which all numbers 1 and 2 promote to the knock-outs.
The most remarkable eliminations were for Robinson Morales, who lost to Choong Bok Lee and Pedro Gonzalez, Jose Juan Garcia and Peter Ceulemans, beaten by group winner Ja In Kang (40-39 in 27) and Jeffrey Jorissen, loser against Roland Forthomme (40-31 in 30) and a draw against one of the feared Nguyens (40-40 in 22).
The performance of young Dutchman Joey de Kok was impressive. He started with a win over Frank Torres (40-27 in 28) and lost on one carom to former World Champion Sung-won Choi, after he came back on two caroms with 6 in the exciting end, scoring once in the last quarter and missing the equaliser. Lütfi Cenet was eliminated by Huberney Cataño, Duc Anh Chien by Turgay Orak and Luis Aveiga knocked Jun Tae Kim and Gökhan Salman out of the tournament.
The top of the day ranking:
1 Nguyen Quoc Nguyen 4-1,904-11
2 Jacob Haack Sörensen 4-1,818-12
3 Myeong Jong Cha 4-1.818-8
4 Antonio Montes 4-1,777-9
5 Huberney Cataño 4-1,708-8.
Ten group winners gained 4 match points, two (Aveiga and Ja In Kang) 3 points. Among the best twelve were four Europeans: Jacob Haack Sörensen, Antonio Montes, Turgay Orak and Roland Forthomme.
The draw for the knockouts (start: 10.00 in Las Vegas, 19.00 West European time):
Group A: Jaspers, Sörensen, Teran, Capak
Group B: Zanetti, Nelin, Nguyen Quoc, Piedrabuena
Group C: Sánchez, Blomdahl, Patino, Gonzalez
Group D: Tran, Sayginer, Cha, Kang
Group E: HJ Kim, Heo, Montes, Aveiga
Group F: Merckx, Forthomme, Sidhom, Cataño
Group G: Tasdemir, Orak, Bury, MW Cho
Group H: Horn, Coklu, SW Choi, CB Lee.