3-Cushion
HURGHADA – Who turned off the lights in the hall, after this evening’s gruelling series of matches? Was it Dutchman ben Thijssen, who lost the first set 7 – 15 to Apostolos Balogiannis but turned it around to a 15 – 10 and 15 – 7 victory? Or was it Austrian Alfred Nebuda after his hard battle with Konstantinos Bartsokas, where he got the better of the Greek in the decider, 15 – 13?
Two days of the World Cup have been completed, today some of the gladiators arrived in the Sunrise Garden Beach.
Around 6 o'clock the man who made the weekend with his run of 28 arrived. He smiled a modest smile as Roland Forthomme always does, and walked to the dining room with girlfriend Karina Jetten, shaking hands here and there, ready for a good nights sleep.
He stil has one day off tomorrow, then he’ll start his Hurghada World Cup efforts, without even being certain of a place in the main tournament. Forthomme may have equalized the world record for high run, his place on the world ranking is not high enough to get him placed. He will play Frenchman Pierre Soumagne on Wednesday, and a player from the Tuesday qualifications.
Eddy Merckx, arrived today, had a good line: ,,This is what they do to me: two players make 50 points in 2 innings. Gerwin Valentijn ran 22 two weeks ago, Roland Forthomme ran 28 this sunday.''
Peter Ceulemans responded quickly: ,,You started it, Eddy, with your 50 in 6 innings.''
Torbjörn Blomdahl was one of the first seeded players to arrive in the lobby. The world number 1 was crowned winner of the series last year. That prize will not be handed out this season, as the number of tournaments (3) is too low.
Therese Klompenhouwer, who (this weekend also) ran a 15 to maybe record the best performance ever by a woman in the honor league, complained about an ear infection. ,,I will take you to one of our referees, who is a doctor'', said co-organizer Nabil Salama. Therese will start tomorrow, with a match against countryman Huub Wilkowski.
Two other Dutchmen, Richard de Bruin and Kees Wittens, started their second day strongly, but only Richard de Bruin was rewarded with a prolonged stay. In his last match he beat Egyptian Magued Elias, after a remarkably bad patch in the second set: ,,After 5 innings I needed a bathroom break badly, but I waited until the 15th inning. Then, I begged the umpire to let me go.''
Richard de Bruin won 2-1 and prceeds to the next round. Young Frenchman Adrie Tachoire could not complete the mission, as he was beaten in his first match by Thomas Andersen (2-0) and his recovery against Ralf Lenz (2 – 0) was to no avail.
Kees Wittens fell victim to the draw: he was in the strongest flight of the day. Three players ended with one victory, Korean Dong Hoon Kim made it to the next round averaging 1.280, Wittens ended on 1.297 with one set less, Turk Muhammed Cavusoglu scored 1.181.