3-Cushion
PELOPONNESOS - The European ladies number two, Karina Jetten, was eliminated on the first day of the Peloponnese World Cup. The man who gave the verdict was Alex Balomenos, one of the main board members in Greek billiards.
Athanasios Athanasiou, the ship's owner, who has given the billiard sport a financial boost in his country, finished second in his group behind Dimitris Apostoleas and is out for next round.
The Greek players dominated the opening day with fourteen players of sixteen who qualified for the second round. Apostolos Balogiannis was the best man with 30-point matches in 22 and 20 innings. The Turk Ybrahim Seyhan had a nightmare against the group leader and finished his match with four caroms!
The top five behind Balogiannis (four match points, 1.428 average) consisted of Dionis Tsokantas (1.250), Nikos Chatzipavlis (1.016), Gregory Retzios (0.983) and Konstantinos Giannakopoulos (0.937).
The Italian Francesco Orlando (10th) and Turk Kanuni Bulent Gunduz (16th) were the only two non-Greeks in top sixteen.
Alex Balomenos disturbed the illusions of the Dutch Karina Jetten, whom he defeated 30-28 in a very moderate party (44 innings). Also in her first match (30 in 50 innings), Jetten could not really convince.
Tomorrow (Tuesday) the Turks Birol Uymaz and Mehmet Yavaz, Spaniard Carlos Crespo and Korean Young Chull Kim enter the tournament as the most known players. The Vietnamese Minh Cam Ma was participant in the World Games in Colombia.