Super start and a wonderful day in the World Cup

02/05/2016

Published by frits bakker

BURSA - The best start in front of his home crowd was for Semih Sayginer (18-0 against Jae Ho Cho), the best finish in round one was for Frédéric Caudron and Torbjörn Blomdahl with closing runs of fifteen and fourteen. What a sparkling start to the Bursa World Cup, where the closing weekend still has 32 players lined up. Two players from the top-12 escaped from elimination in a double shootout, and the world number 3, Dani Sánchez, ran into Pedro Piedrabuena at the worst possible time.

It was a day of sensational matches in the Ataturk centre in Bursa, Blomdahl's 11-inning exhibition the best of all (3.636). Ten players stayed above 2.000 average, many Turkish hopefuls had to leave but crowd favorite Semih Sayginer had a promising start to his mission: he left Korean Jae Ho Cho far behind: 40-29 in 18 innings. The day was ended by Pedro Piedraubuena, who had been put at 27-18 behind after his opponent Dani Sanchez had run a 15. The American multi-title holder who can't seem to find that level in World Cups, gathered all his courage and class to make a late charge with runs of nine and three, to win 40-34 in fifteen innings: 2.666/2.266.

Six of the eight Turks were sent home, only Tayfun Tasdemir and Semih Sayginer advanced. Murat Naci Coklu, one of last years World Cup winners (Istanbul), wasn't yet entirely beaten by Frédéric Caudron just after the break (25-16), but he could not do anything but watch when the Belgian ran 15 and out to win 40-17 in 16. That first session of the day was the most colorful one, when Semih ran 11 from the break against Cho and even made it 18-0. That would end 40-29 in 18 in favor of Sayginer. Torbjörn Blomdahl had a more subdued start against Turgay Orak (trailing 11-4), but once he had made a run of nine, there was no stopping the world nr. 1, who finished with a 14: 40-19 in 11 (3.636).

Dick Jaspers had tense closing moments when he managed to just deny Lütfi Cenet, who had the match all but won. The Dutchman showed his strength at 39-33, when his opponent could not score from three match points, and Jaspers forced a shootout. The first one ended 4-4, the second was won by Jaspers: 2-1. Roland Forthomme and Quyet Chien Tran produced similar excitement, after a much better start for the Vietnamese (27-7 in 10) and the Belgian closing in later to make it 40-40. Forthomme started the shootout with three, and Tran copied that when he shuld have made the fourth. In the second try, Forthomme won 2-1. iIn addition to Blomdahl winning in 11, Piedrabuena in 15 and Caudron in 16, there were good matches from Sayginer, Tasdemir, Jaspers, Cenet and Kang (18 innings).

Haeng Jik Kim's comeback to the World Cups was a bit of a disappointment: the young Korean fell victim to an eager Nikos Polychronopoulos (40-23 in 21). Turgay Orak and Tarik Yavuz left with their heads held high, after their great week of qualifications. The Koreans still have Sung-Won Choi (wins in 22 against Incekara), Dong Koong Kang (in 18 against Yavuz) and Jung Han Heo (in 21 against Quoc Nguyen Nguyen), and that is a powerful trio. The Belgian flag even tops the Korean one: the fearsome foursome Caudron-Merckx-Forthomme-Leppens will show up in the arena tomorrow. Hyung Bum Hwang and Sameh Sidhom are the youngsters in the field that has survived the opening day. We can look forward to Blomdahl-Sayginer, to the former Agipi tandem Caudron-Zanetti and the Belgian clash between Forthomme and Leppens.

The matches for Saturday in the last 16:

11.00: Blomdahl-Sayginer Caudron-Zanetti Choi-Tasdemir Heo-Merckx

13.00: Jaspers-Hwang Forthomme-Leppens Kang-Polychronopoulos Piedrabuena-Sidhom.