Billiards with soaring highs and deep lows

07/05/2018

Published by frits bakker

Martin Horn, the best qualifier on the last day

PORTO - The world looked sunny and beautiful to Dion Nelin, when he had a 24-6 lead over Kostas Papakonstantinou after just three innings: 10-0-14. But then, 17 misses in the next 23 innings, and the Greek had won: 40-36. Jean Paul de Bruijn felt strong in his match against Dong-Koong Kang, when the score board said 33-22. But then, the Korean added 16 points in his last four tries, and the Dutchman could add only one: 40-34 in 29 to Kang. What about Eddy Leppens, with a comfortable lead over Birol Uymaz: 35-22. It almost went horribly wrong for the Belgian, who had to watch as the Turk ran 9, then 7 in the equalizer: 40-40.

Billiards with soaring highs and profound lows, that was the character of the last day of qualifying in Porto. Lütfi Cenet showed his best when he was almost out the door: he produced the best match of the day against Jung-Ju Shin, beating the young Korean 40-23 in 14 innings. Roland Forthomme was at his almost-worst when he played Javier Palazón: no chance at all and 40-18 in 22. What about Murat Tüzül, the capricious Turk, who had opened indifferently with a draw against Salman (40-40 in 29), then walked all over Thomas Andersen in a one-sided match: 40-14 in 15. Or Jef Philipoom, who showed some of his class when he had already been eliminated: 40-34 in 20 against one of the coming Koreans, Wan Young Choi.

As the day progressed, two "groups of death" emerged. The one where Lütfi Cenet, Tonny Carlsen and Jung-Ju Shin all had two match points, with 1.941 for Cenet, 1.878 for Carlsen and 1.800 for Shin. And the flight with Chi Yeon Cho and Wan Young Choi, both participants in the 3CC Masters next week, complemented by Jef Philipoom. All three won one match, but Cho had 2.028, Choi 1.947 and Philipoom 1.675. There was a lot of quality in the group of Eddy Leppens (3 points, 2.162) and Birol Uymaz (3 points, 1.951). No surprise then, that Therese Klompenhouwer was eliminated in spite of her fine 1.318 average.

As he did in Blankenberge, David Zapata played himself into the main draw with 4 points and 1.481, ahead of Young Hoon Lee with 2 points and 1.521. Kostas Papakonstantinou, after his great comeback against Dion Nelin, ended ahead of Mehmet Goren (1.641) who had another fine round. Martin Horn looks ready for the serious business: he had 4 match points and 2.105 in his group with Yüksel and Martinez. The same can be said about Semih Sayginer, who also had two wins and recorded 1.777, as well as Javier Palazón with 1.632 in a group with Celik and Forthomme. Ahmet Alp had the better chances when he started the last match against Sung Uk Oh, but the Korean got the better of him and survived his third day in Porto: 40-27.

Martin Horn was the winner of the Thursday, a day marked by the absence of the Vietnamese players. The German was first to go into the main draw, ahead of Kostas Papakonstantinou, Semih Sayginer, Dong-Koong Kang and Tayfun Tasdemir. The best three runners-up to sneak in through the back door were Birol Uymaz, Wan Young Choi and Tonny Carlsen.

The top twelve:

1 Martin Horn 4-2.105-7

2 Kostas Papakonstantinou 4-1.818-13

3 Semih Sayginer 4-1.777-10

4 Dong-Koong Kang 4-1.739-8

5 Tayfun Tasdemir 4-1.632-9

6 Javier Palazón 4-1.632-7

7 Sung Uk Oh 4-1.538-8

8 David Zapata 4-1.481-8

9 Eddy Leppens 3-2.162-12

10 Murat Tüzül 3-1.818-10

11 Chi Yeon Cho 2-2.028-10