3-Cushion
TRABZON - Before tenors like Peter Ceulemans, Antonio Ortiz, Haeng Jik Kim, Glenn Hofmann and Pierre Soumagne enter the arene in Trabzon tomorrow, the qualification rounds are in full swing today. In the arena of the Novotel rolled the first run of ten over the table, made by the Greek Kostas Mavranganis, Omar Karakurt swinged to a first match with an average of 2.000, but most of the time there were a lot of lesser gods on the table, who just liked to belong to the 176 players in this festival.
Soner Tas started the tournament not so impressively, won his two sets by 15-3 against Ali Maviler, but didn't excel in average (1.071). He had still to win his second match against Onder Yanik to share the twenty players who qualify for the next round, but Tas lost in two sets: 15-4 and 15-0.
Tolgahan Kiraz started with a beautiful 1.500 in the D group and is a contender to continue. Gülşen Degener was far from happy about her start in the group, where she lost 15-11 and 15-8 to Ali Kiyak and only had an average of 0.422.
The group of Kostas Mavranganis, the Greek who made a run of ten against Tae Jun Park, was very curious. Mavranganis could not continue his good start, because he wasted his chances in the evening session: he lost to Kara Hala in straight sets (15 -10 in 19, 15-9 in 16).
Omer Karakurt seemed to have a hopeless start. In his first match he was defeated by 0.681 average, but he recovered with a miraculous victory: 15-3 and 15-3 and an average of 2.000. But still he must wait for the result of the match between the Austrian Zoran Gajs and the Turk Sami Oztavli.