Carom
BRANDENBURG AN DER HAVEL - In the short dialogue after the match they spoke about the tension at the end, about the hard fight, struggling for each point and the conclusion that Semih Sayginer eventually just was a bit more lucky than Michael Nilsson. The Turk went on to the main tournament with a draw (30-30 in 34), however it could have been the other way around, because his Swedish opponent had a very few opportunities in the closing innings.
It was not a high quality fight, but a match full of tension, finally it was the battle to go on ore be eliminated, knowing that Sayginer would qualify by a draw because of a better average. He reached the finish line first, and Nilsson, when the tension was gone, could equalize with three.
Adnan Yüksel did what could be expected. He won his last match against Jean-Christophe Roux (30-24 in 22). Peter Ceulemans was eliminated, unexpectedly, by Andreas Niehaus (30-27). The Dutchman Barry van Beers needed a strong finish to run away from the Hungarian Tamas Szolnoki, whom he defeated eventually, after 27-24 down, with a final run of six.
Arnim Kahofer confirmed his good form in recent weeks with a win against Tolgahan Kiraz: 30-15 in 24 innings.
The sensation came earlier in the evening from the table where Sergio Jimenez and Martin Horn competed for a spot in the knockout phase. The German had a painful start in front of his home crowd, saw his opponent run out to 21-1 and could not recover fast enough to come back: Jimenez won and fully deserved victory 30-16 in 18.
The most curious escape came from the group with Jérôme Barbeillon, the Austrian Georg Schmied and Francis Forton. The little Belgian Forton won his first match vs Schmied (30-21 in 30), who then had a miraculous revival against Barbeillon (win 30-19 in 18 innings).
The Belgian seemed to be close to the qualification, but in his last match he faced a complete knock out: Forton only scored four points (30-4 in 17), paving the way for Barbeillon to the final round.
The Austrian Andreas Kronlachner certainly did not expect the qualification after his hopeless loss against Jean van Erp in his first match: 30-26 in 36. The outcome in the group was sensational: Kronlachner beat the despairing Javier Palazón 30-10 in 21. Jean van Erp started the final match with the best chances, but the Dutch champion was outplayed by Palazón in the decisive phase: 30-25 in 21. The three players finished with equal match points, the average was in favour of Kronlachner with a very small margin: 0.982, against Van Erp 0.964 and Palazón 0.952.
Nikos Polychronopoulos made an end to the illusions of the young German Dustin Jaksche, who had such a surprising start against the Luxemburger Gérard Goedert (30-3 in 16). When it came to routine, the Greek had the longest breath 30-27 in 22.
Three Dutch players were eliminated in the first evening session: Raimond Burgman by Jean Reverchon, Glenn Hoffman by Brian Knudsen and Jean van Erp by Andreas Kronlachner.
The Spaniard Sergio Jimenez outplayed Martin Horn
The group winners:
Group A:
1 Kostas Papakonstantinou 4-1.363-8
Group B:
1 Andreas Kronlachner 2-0.982-10
Group C:
1 Nikos Polychronopoulos 4-1.363-4
Group D:
1 Brian Knudsen 4-1.153-6
Group E:
1 Jean Reverchon 4-1.276-7
Group F:
1 Sergio Jimenez 4-1.428-8
Group G:
1 Jérôme Barbeillon 2-1.400-7
Group H:
1 Peter De Backer 4-1.052-6
Group I:
1 Semih Sayginer 3-1.304-8
Group J:
1 Arnim Kahofer 4-1.111-5
Group K:
1 Miroslav Baca 4-0.895-5
Group L:
1 Andreas Niehaus 4-1.132-11
Group M:
1 Adnan Yüksel 4-1.621-7
Group N:
1 Martin Bohac 4-1.111-9
Group O:
1 Barry van Beers 4-1.250-6
Group P:
1 Murat Tüzül 4-1.090-6.
Adnan Yüksel was the best of the day on average
The matches for the last 32, tomorrow, Saturday:
9.00:
Zanetti-Kronlachner
Yüksel-Legazpi
Bury-Niehaus
Bohac-Sánchez
Blomdahl-De Backer
Reverchon-Coklu
Cenet-Polychronopoulos
Baca-Caudron
11.30:
Merckx-Sayginer
Papakonstantinou-De Bruijn
Kasidokostas-Van Beers
Tüzül-Tasdemir
Rudolph-Kahofer
Knudsen-Forthomme
Leppens-Jimenez
Barbeillon-Jaspers.