MANISA - The Turkish billiard season has been launched with a tournament in Manisa (winner Emrullah Basegmez) and will continue in two weeks with a spectacular Grand Prix tournament. The first 2015 tournament is played in Antalya from 9 to 17 February and starts with eight hundred players: an absolute record for Turkey.
The inscription for the ranking tournaments was opened in recent years for 574 players. After the players request, the federation opened up the preliminaries for another 184 players. That brings the total to nearly 800. Semih Sayginer receives a wildcard this year for the main draw of all the Grand Prix tournaments.
The first, not ranking tournament in Manisa was played with 64 participants including all known Turkish players. Emrullah Basegmez, one of the new stars in Turkish three-cushion, won the final match against Hamit Akkaya 40-18 in 20 innings after he had outplayed Tolgahan Kiraz earlier in the semifinals 40-31 in 29 innings. Hamit Akkaya defeated Ahmet Alp in the semifinals 40-19 in 18.
Tayfun Tasdemir missed the final stage by a loss against Kiraz (40-28 in 21), Murat Naci Coklu was outplayed by Birol Uymaz 40-25 in 18.
Uymaz, Semiz, Güngör and Capak were eliminated in the quarters by Basegmez, Akkaya , Kiraz and Alp.
The top ten with averages in Manisa:
1 Emrul Basegmez 1.305
2 Hamit Akkaya 1.361
3 Tolgahan Kiraz 1.348
4 Ahmet Alp 1.287
5 Birol Uymaz 1.304
6 Ayhan Semiz 1.132
7 Can Capak 1.085
8 Savas Güngör 1.051
9 Tayfun Tasdemir 1.511
10 Murat Naci Coklu 1.327.
The players for the final phase in Manisa, front row left the winner Basegmez.