3-Cushion
PORTO - And of course a frothy cold one was awaiting Francis (Cisse) Forton, after he had done so well on the third day of the World Cup in Porto. The Turk Ahmet Alp was sent off 30-20 in 17 innings, and before that the good-natured little Belgian had already beaten Sylvia Eckel 30-18 in 14. The upper room of the billiard arena, where normally FC Porto basketball players are active, became an even cozier place as Francis Forton and his Belgian friends invaded it to celebrate.
Vietnamese Quoc Nguyen Nguyen ended in the top spot of the day, Francis Forton was second, Rui Manuel Costa, Vinh Ly The and In-Won Kang also amongst the day's best. Francis Forton's total over two matches was impressive: four points, 1.935 average and two more matches (at least) to look forward to.
Does that mean the Belgian is back? It's not quite like that. The 52-year old from Brussels who started playing billiards at 14, shows his face in World Cups from time to time. He was in Sluiskil a few times, and earlier this year he was in Istanbul, where he was eliminated early by an unknown but strong Korean player. A look at his career: Cisse Forton finished second three times in Belgian championships, twice behind Caudron, once behind Peter De Backer.
His moment of glory was a victory in the UMB World Cup in Athens in 1996, in the BWA days, where he met Christian Rudolph in the final. ,,Mind you'', says Cisse, ,,it was not a field of amateurs. Dani Sánchez was there, Martin Horn, Dion Nelin and other good players.''
At that time, he had given up on his room in Vorst, and was two years into his quest to live off billiards. ,,I teach, play the leagues in several countries and once or twice, I play a World Cup.'' As he does in Porto, where one of his sponsors has included him in the Leca team, together with two other Belgians, Jef Philipoom and Eddy Merckx. Forton has already done better than he had expected for these opening days. ,,This is not bad, right?', he smiles from the locker room. ,,We take each day as it comes.''
Home player Rui Costa, popular amongst the FC Porto fans, also had a flawless start to his tournament and told about it in front of the Portugese TV-camera's. The national champion first beat Mehmet Aksoy 30-27 in 32, and in the flight decider got the better of Korean Chi Yeon Cho: 30-17 in 17, to record a 1.875 average.
In-Won Kang made an entrance into the arena but impressed not only by his yellow hair. The Korean player, named "the David Bowie of the tournament" by Therese Klompenhouwer, played an excellent match and overcame Byrol Uymaz. Therese: ,,I've played with In-Won in Amsterdam for two seasons. He is a very nice guy.'' Other than that, he is also a fine player, who averaged 1.428 for his two matches.
Vietnamese Vinh The Ly was responsible for the elimination of Jean Reverchon and Hyun Min Seo (1.818 average), Quoc Nguyen Nguyen did even better when he scored 2.000 exactly against Alfonso Legazpi and Atsushi Kiyota. Frenchman Jean-Christoph Roux won his flight on average, with two match points and 1.372. Peter Ceulemans beat Tae Soo Lim and Joao Silva in 19 and 26 innings.
Therese Klompenhouwer fought bravely against Greek Papakonstantinou, but came up short in the closing innings. Young Vietnamese Duc Anh Chien Nguyen surprised Jef Philipoom 30-18 in 24 innings, to win his group. Apostolos Balogiannis did the same in one of the late matches of the day. Pierre Soumagne beat the Turk Ahmet Bayatli to end with four points, the Turk ended on two but with a better average: 1.593.
Gokhan Salman fought his way through a tough flight, first beating his countryman Tolgahan Kiraz (30-28 in 24) , then the young Spaniard Juan David Zapata: 30-27 in 23. Vietnamese Quoc Nguyen Nguyen was the best winner of the day with 4 points and 2.000, ahead of Forton (1.935), Rui Manuel Costa (1.875), Vinh The Ly (1.818) and In-Won Kang (1.428).
Three Vietnamese players were in the best 6 of the ranking.
The top sixteen: 1 Quoc Nguyen Nguyen, 2 Francis Forton, 3 Rui Manuel Costa, 4 Vinh The Ly, 5 In-Won Kang, 6 Xuan Cuong Ma, 7 Peter Ceulemans, 8 Pierre Soumagne, 9 David Martinez, 10 Gokhan Salman, 11 Duc Anh Chien Nguyen, 12 Kostas Papakonstantinou, 13 Murat Tüzül, 14 Yavuz Güngördü, 15 Apostolos Balogiannis, 16 Young Chull Kim.
The groups for tomorrow (Thursday):
Flight A: Dani Sánchez, Vinh Ly The, In-Won Kang.
Flight B: Lütfi Cenet, Rui Manuel Costa, Xuan Cuong Ma.
Flight C: Nikos Polychronopoulos, Francis Forton, Peter Ceulemans.
Flight D: Choong-Bok Lee, Quoc Nguyen Nguyen, Pierre Soumagne.
Flight E: Murat Naci Coklu, Javier Palazón, David Martinez.
Flight F: Quyet Chien Tran, Anh Vu Duong, Gokhan Salman.
Flight G: Jean Paul de Bruijn, Jae Guen Kim, Duc Anh Chien Nguyen.
Flight H: Dinh Nai Ngo, Glenn Hofman, Kostas Papakonstantinou.
Flight I: Eddy Leppens, Savas Bulut, Murat Tüzül.
Flight J: Roland Forthomme, Ruben Legazpi, Yavuz Güngördü.
Flight K: Hyung Bum Hwang, Sameh Sidhom, Apostolos Balogiannis.
Flight L: Jung Han Heo, Adnan Yüksel, Young Chull Kim.
The first matches start at 10.00 Portugese time, and will be streamed live by Kozoom. The twelve flight winners and the four best nrs. 2 will advance to the main draw, scheduled for Thursday evening.