Ferreira and Ma debutants in the Masters

SCHILTIGHEIM - The preliminary rounds of the 2013 Masters Agipi start off on November 23 with ten players, divided into two groups battling for four spots in the next qualifying rounds in January and February 2013.

The ten players in the first round are in Group 1 Javier Palazón, Raimond Burgman, Roland Forthomme, Dion Nelin and Jean-Christoph Roux and in Group 2: Eddy Leppens, Nikos Polychronopoulos, Xuan Cuong Ma, Jérôme Barbeillon and Joao Ferreira.

The 18-year-old Portuguese Joao Ferreira and Vietnamese Xuan Cuong Ma are the debutants in Group 2 of the first heat. Raimond Burgman debuts in the tournament in the other group.

Torbjörn Blomdahl, Kyung-Roul Kim and Martin Horn, the numbers one, two and three of last year, lead the groups in the final phase together with Sung-Won Choi. The four groups of four seeded players will be supplemented by four players from the qualifying rounds.
 
Group 2 starts on Friday 23 November at 17.00 with the matches Nikos Polychronopoulos-Jérôme Barbeillon and Xuan Cuong Ma-Joao Pedro Ferreira.

The further schedule in this group:

Saturday 10.00: Nikos Polychronopoulos-Xuan Cuong Ma, Eddy Leppens-Joao Pedro Ferreira

17.00: Leppens-Barbeillon, Polychronopoulos Ferreira

Sunday 10.00: Leppens-Ma, Barbeillon Ferreira

17.00: Leppens-Polychronopoulos, Ma-Barbeillon.

Group A of the tournament is played from January 25 to 27 with Torbjörn Blomdahl, Filippos Kasidokostas, Marco Zanetti, Tayfun Tasdemir and a qualifier.

Group B (25-27 January) plays with Kyung-Roul Kim, Dani Sánchez, Jae Ho Cho and Murat Naci Coklu and a qualifying player.
 
Group C (February 1 to 3) with Martin Horn, Eddy Merckx, Jérémy Bury, Lütfi Cenet and a qualifier.
 
Group D (1-3 February) with Sung-Won Choi, Dick Jaspers, Frédéric Caudron, Choong Bok Lee and a qualifying player.
 
The final round with eight players (numbers one and two from the Groups A, B, C and D) is played from 21 to 24 March.