SHARM EL SHEIKH - The tension in the billiard arena was perceptible: not one, but a double sensation was in the air. Torbjörn Blomdahl, the reigning world champion, was under fire in the match against the young French prospect Gwendal Maréchal. And Semih Sayginer, last week's World Cup winner in Sharm El Sheikh, was also balancing on the brink of ruin in his match with Egyptian outsider Riad Nady. Two world stars, desperately searching for a life jacket in the run-up to the World three cushion championship. The Swedish, six-time world champion escaped against Maréchal. The Turk, applauded four days ago after his victory over Dick Jaspers in the World Cup, was eliminated, out for the world title.
He lost in his first match to Colombian Mauricio Gutierrez 40-34 in 18 innings. That was a little mistake by the master, no more than that, so did the spectators and fans expect. But nothing was less true. The Egyptian Riad Nady, the number 36 in the world, in this World Championship with a wildcard, played the match of his life. With a 30-20 lead in 16 innings, he was threatened one more time by Sayginer, who took back the lead with runs of 5 and 6 to 33-31. Then, it became 35-34 for Nadi, 36-35 for Sayginer and in the end, the improbable happened: the Egyptian local hero went through the finish with a final run of five, of which the penultimate miraculously caromed. The audience cheered for the winner, Semih Sayginer was robbed of an illusion. After his victory in the World Cup, he had been so eager to win a second world title in his career.
The final conclusion after the second day: it turned out to be the only, thunderous surprise, because Torbjörn Blomdahl was able to escape to Gwendal Maréchal, who played a do-or-die match for his own chances and so for Blomdahl's elimination. The coup, the attack on the position of the title holder, was foiled in the end of the match. The six-time world champion came back from a slump: Blomdahl won 40-33 and has a good chance of staying in the tournament, while Sayginer has to pack his bags and leave with that one, wonderful memory.
Torbjörn Blomdahl, the reigning champion, escaped to French player Gwendal Maréchal
Riad Nady, the Egyptian outsider, knocked out Semih Sayginer, the World Cup winner
Semih Sayginer on his way out in the match with Riad Nady (pictures Hervé Lacombe)
The overviews of the groups on this second day of the World championship:
Group A:
The draw between Torbjörn Blomdahl and Ruben Legazpi in the second round kept all chances open for second place in the final match. Ruben Legazpi could watch very relaxed in the last match, because he won the first over Gwendal Maréchal (40-35 in 23) and then drew against Torbjörn Blomdahl in one of the four top matches with a draw on the scoreboard. It was therefore only about the runner-up position in the Blomdahl-Maréchal match, with the Swede in a slightly more comfortable situation, as he was allowed to draw. The start put a 7-1 lead for the young Frenchman on the board, even more comfortable at 21-12, but just after the middle part of the match, Torbjörn Blomdahl grabbed the lifebelt to survive with runs of 5 and 10. He ran out to a 33-29 and finally to 40-33 in 26, when Maréchal went down in the tension.
The ranking in Group A:
1 Ruben Legazpi 3-1,777-7
2 Torbjörn Blomdahl 3-1,666-10
3 Gwendal Maréchal 0-1,387-6
Group B:
Peter Ceulemans was in the most favourable position after his win against Cetin Behzat (40-19 in 21) and the almost unfortunate draw in his second match with Dick Jaspers. The Belgian came to 39 with a run of 9 in the 17th inning, while Jaspers was still on 34. Ceulemans missed his 40th point and took five more innings to score his last. With a score of 39-39, Ceulemans scored first and Jaspers levelled. That put Ceulemans in a comfortable position. Jaspers still had to beat Swiss player Behzat and could determine who was the group winner on average, Ceulemans or Jaspers. It was a close call between the numbers one and two. Jaspers obviously won against Behzat (40-10) and did it in 19 innings: two innings less than Ceulemans.
The ranking in Group B:
1 Dick Jaspers 3-2,000-10
2 Peter Ceulemans 3-1,904-9
3 Cetin Behzat 0-0,743-5
Group C:
How close was Michael Nilsson to a victory over over Marco Zanetti with his last run of 6, in which he missed the last point on 39. That allowed Zanetti to finish first and Nilsson to score the equaliser (40-40 in 25). Mohsen Fouda, the third man in the group and 66-year-old Egyptian, was the last opponent, but Zanetti certainly had enough to win to become group winner. That happened in a match without any tension. The Italian defeated Fouda 40-20 in 23 with a best run of 12.
The ranking in Group C:
1 Marco Zanetti 3-1,666-12
2 Michael Nilsson 3-1,194-7
3 Mohsen Fouda 0-0,784-4
Group D:
Portuguese Rui Manuel Costa, the beating heart behind FC Porto's top team, could already pick up his ticket for the knock-outs on Tuesday after his draw against Eddy Merckx and his magnificent run of 15, the highest so far. Costa, who won his first match against Abu Tayeh 40-25 in 23, closed the group with 3 points and 1,333. Merckx still had one small obstacle to overcome: Jordanian Abu Tayeh. It was by no means a walk-over: the almost unknown player outdid himself, scored runs of 8 and 11, was still leading 27-25 and even 36-35, when eventually Merckx put up his final sprint for 40-37 in 26.
The ranking in Group D:
1 Eddy Merckx 3-1,509-8
2 Rui Costa 3-1,333-15
3 Mashhour Abu Tayeh 0-1,050-11
Group E:
Tayfun Tasdemir's warm-up gave him a favourable starting position with a win over Ronny Lindemann (40-20 in 15), all the more so because the average (2,666) was the best of these first rounds. In his starting match, the German defeated a feared Dane, Jacob Haack Sörensen, who did not appear in his best form at this World Championship. Lindemann defeated Sörensen 40-33 in 35. And Tasdemir got the maximum 4 match points thanks to his victory over Sörensen 40-30 in 23 innings.
The ranking in Group E:
1 Tayfun Tasdemir 4-2,105-10
2 Ronny Lindemann 2-1,200-11
3 Jacob Haack Sörensen 0-1,086-7
Group F:
José Juan Garcia, the former World Junior champion (2013, Peloponnese with Myung Woo Cho on the podium for the first time) did not shy away from the match against Dani Sánchez, after young Colombian had won his first from Martin Bohac 40-39 in 32. Sánchez led 24-5 after some small attacks in the first five innings (3, 6, 4, 5, 6), Garcia came back in the second part with 5, 7, 4 and 7, it resulted in 40-40 after 21 innings. Dani Sánchez, the most successful player in crisis time, took the group win with a quick victory against Martin Bohac, whom he defeated after 30-2 with 40-12 in 16 innings.
The ranking in Group F:
1 Dani Sánchez 3-2,162-9
2 José Juan Garcia 3-1,509-7
3 Martin Bohac 0-1,062-4
Group G:
Javier Teran was one of the best starters at this World championship (against Shehayeb from Lebanon, 40-13 in 16), also seemed to keep Haeng Jik Kim under control in his second game, but stopped scoring with the end in sight. Kim, totally helpless, came back from 38-23 down in the end, Teran took eight innings to finish his last two, Kim even finished first, giving Teran the chance to equalise. The Korean, far from being in the form he should have in this World championship, won his last match against Shehayeb 40-23 in 32 and finished second behind Teran.
The ranking in Group G:
1 Javier Teran 3-1,509-9
2 Haeng Jik Kim 3-1,159-5
3 Yasser Shehayeb 0-0,750-6
Group H:
Javier Vera, once a feared killer at the World championship in Bolivia, did not so much good in his first match against Chang Hoon Seo, but also had all the bad luck in the world (40-15 in 27). Seo was beaten in his second appearance by Sameh Sidhom (40-27 in 29), after which the fight for positions one and two came up. Vera did recover from his first, poor performance, but was still beaten after a neck-and-neck race by Sidhom 40-36 in 23.
The ranking in Group H:
1 Sameh Sidhom 4-1,538-7
2 Chang Hoon Seo 2-1,196-10
3 Javier Vera 0-1,020-8
Group I
The World Cup winner Semih Sayginer faced an excellent Colombian in his first match: Mauricio Gutierrez. There seemed no problem at all for the Turk at 17-16, but a run of 11 gave Gutierrez a solid lead (34-23), which he held until the end (40-34 in 18). That already meant that Sayginer could not be the group winner, because Gutierrez had also beaten Riad Nady 40-33 in 45 innings in a very poor match. But it became even worse, because Sayginer did not win his second match either, which made him the number three in the group with two losses. Mauricio Gutierrez and Riad Nady move on, Semih is eliminated, with 0 match points and 1,750 on average.
The ranking in Group I:
1 Mauricio Gutierrez 4-1,269-11
2 Riad Nady 2-1,089-8
3 Semih Sayginer 0-1,750-6
Group J:
Murat Naci Coklu, the main contender in this group, came into the arena when Ludo Kools, the Dutch Master, had already won his match with Arnim Kahofer 40-35 in 29. Coklu repaired the proportions (he defeated Kools 40-21 in 19), after which Kahofer only had a chance to pass Kools if he would beat Coklu. The Dutchman (2 points, 1,270) could watch whether Kahofer (0 points, 1,206) could catch up with Coklu, but that was hardly possible. The Turk played a great match, led 35-21 in 12 innings and won 40-26 in 14 (best match of the preliminary round).
The ranking in Group J:
1 Murat Naci Coklu 4-2,424-8
2 Ludo Kools 2-1,270-5
3 Arnim Kahofer 0-1,418-6
Group K:
Korean Wan Young Choi, with his unusual style of play, was the quick group winner, as he first beat Christian Hernandez from Mexico 40-28 in 25 and then surprisingly struck out against Martin Horn: 40-36 in 23. The German took his next chance with both hands: he had little trouble with the mission towards Hernandez. He put the Mexican behind from the start and won thanks to a run of 9 with 40-9 in 16.
The ranking in Group K:
1 Wan Young Choi 4-1,666-6
2 Martin Horn 2-1,948-9
3 Christian Hernandez 0-0,902-5
Group L:
Japanese Takeshima O (family name O) launched himself with a solid win over Can Capak (40-35 in 30), in a group in which Jérémy Bury was the top favourite. The Frenchman beat O in an excellent starting match 40-24 in 20 and went into the match against Capak with by far the best average (2,000 from the first game). Bury finished with the maximum win, because Capak was beaten as well. The score was 40-31 in 22 innings.
The ranking in Group L:
1 Jérémy Bury 4-1,904-7
2 Takeshima O 2-1,280-6
3 Can Capak 0-1,269-8
The four matches that will still be played tomorrow, Thursday at 11.00 as a conclusion of the group matches (after that the pairing for the knockouts with 32 players will follow):
Group M:
Mauricio Gonzalez's strong match (win against Ossama 40-23 in 24) was put into proportion by Lütfi Cenet, so that the Turk more or less should face an easy job against Youssef Ossama, the ever cheerful Egyptian. That match is on Thursday at 11am.
Group N:
Takao Miyashita was an almost new face from Japan, but not immediately the player with chances to survive the first round. Erick Tellez, the man from Costa Rica, shattered the Japanese illusion with a win, 40-28 in 30. He himself lost with a big score to Sung-won Choi (40-15 in 28), after which the battle for 1 and 2 was almost decided.
Thursday morning at 11.00 that match is Choi-Myashita
Groupl O:
Nikos Polychronopoulos' run-up to the World championship is promising. The speedy Greek was two times quick to the finish, both against Alessio D'Agata, the youngest player of the tournament (40-19 in 22) and against Jung-han Heo, his rival for group win: 40-36 in 21.
Thursday at 11.00: Heo-D'Agata
Group P:
The group where three players were perhaps the most evenly matched. Therefore, the first win of Roland Forthomme against Choong Bok Lee was very important. The Belgian triumphed against the Korean, who did not look nearly as strong as in the World Cup, with 40-33 in 31. Dion Nelin then passed Forthomme (40-32 in 26), but the expectation is that the Korean should still stunt against the Dane.
Thursday at 11.00: Nelin-Lee.