DESIO - Six of the finalists in the CEB Grand Prix next gen under 21 are from southern Europe, one from the Netherlands and one from Germany. With those eight players, it's off to the quarter-finals in the Longoni event for European billiard talents in three-cushion on this Sunday morning, from 10.00am. Two Turks are the top favorites based on average. 17-year-old Burak Hashas played 1.851 on average in the group phase, while 21-year-old Denizcan Akkoca is an excellent second on the final list with 1.507.
The traditionally strong Spanish contingent provides three final players with Toni Garcia, Marcos Morales and Daniel Sainz-Pardo, the loners are Joris van 't Zelfden from the Netherlands, Amir Ibraimov from Germany and Goncalo Santos from Portugal.
Quarter-finals, Sunday 10am:
Burak Hashas-Goncalo Santos
Denizcan Akkoca-Marcos Morales
Joris van 't Zelfden-Daniel Sainz-Pardo
Toni Garcia-Amir Ibraimov
Group A:
Burak Hashas, already an international stalwart at young age, won unchallenged in Group A, beating his direct rival Amir Ibraimov 25-10 in 16 innings. The big Turkish talent played his best match against Greek Aristeidis Banis 25-6 in 11 innings and won against Belgian Luca Philipoom 25-13 in 12. Ibraimov drew against Arturo Daniel Zotov in 36 innings, his worst match of the preliminary rounds. Luca Philipoom won his match against Banis 25-11 in 24 innings, finishing as one of six players over 1 on average: 1.084. That was not enough for the 15-year-old Dutchman to qualify.
Group B:
Toni Garcia (Spain) and Denizcan Akkoca (Turkey) divided the qualifications between them in Group B. The mutual encounter, in the best game of this group, ended in a victory for the Spaniard: 25-23 in 11 innings. Dane Daniel Kristiansen won two games and finished just outside the qualifying places in place 3.
Group C:
Dutchman Joris van 't Zelfden was undefeated and outright winner of Group C, in which he shone in his last game against Turk Mustafa Oguz Ceylan with 25-7 in 22 innings. In the match against Daniel Sainz-Pardo, the number two in the group, Joris van 't Zelfden was the better in the final sprint despite three missed match balls: 25-23 in 23. The Spaniard opened that match with a run of 10. Three players finished behind the Dutchman with 4 match points, Sainz-Pardo was the best of those three in average.
Group D:
The only group with six players had two winners with 8 match points. Marcos Morales and Goncalo Santos battled for the group win in the very last game. The Spaniard beat the Portuguese 25-21 in 24 innings. Frenchman Tangui Duriez and Belgian Toon Bollansee finished with 3 match points. The youngest player of the tournament, Dutchman Joeri Wilkowski (12), won his only match since his debut in this CEB leg against Italian Miko Russino 15-13 in 50. Toon Bollansee beat Wilkowski 25-11 in 36.
Denizcan Akkoca and Daniel Sainz-Pardo shone with the highest runs of 10.
The CEB event opened by Eva Viding Busse of CEB
Dutch player Joris van 't Zelfden preparing for the finals in Italian Desio.