3-Cushion
LUXOR - The cameras were focused on the last match of the day, theEuropean/Asian bump between two players with the ambition to go far in the tournament. The still youthful Dutchman Glenn Hofman, in his boyhood twice European junior champion, faced the 45-year-old Korean who is known as William Oh in the billiards world and gathered some fame in the last tournament in New York.
The evening session on the second day at Luxor's World Cup in Luxor had more wonderful matches to offer, like Gülsen Degener's revenge, the struggle of the pretty unknown Murat Celik, who won a prestigious Grand Prix in Turkey a few weeks ago. The seasoned Vietnamese Vinh Ly The already appeared in this early stage, Ronny Brants had to deal with Gülsen Degener and Jacob Haack Sörensen was tested for the first time by Thomas Kerl.
What preceded in the earlier session?
Many Koreans were in a dominant role, speaking about Jung Ju Shin, Seung Jin Lee and Wan Choi Young in four groups in the early evening. The Dane Lars Dunch could beat one of them, Jung Wan Lim, 30-25 in 29. The other two matches were taken by Barry van Beers (30-5 in 25 against Hamed Mohssen) and Jose Maria Mas (30-17 in 26 against Claus Maurer).
Then, the first field of six winners was joined by six in the evening round.
Apart from Vinh Ly The, way too strong for Savas Gungor (20-8 in 11 and 30-12 in 18), all the other tables matched for a long time. Thomas Kerl even led 18-14 against Haack Sörensen, Gülsen Degener levelled with Ronny Brants towards 15-15 and Murat Celik and Sang Ku Kang ran together to 16-15.
Glenn Hofman, on center court, attacked for the first time in the fourth inning, when he made the gap to William Oh by a 12-run to 19-5. Gülsen Degener shone with an awesome 7 against Brants and forced the Belgian to chase at 24-17. Thomas Kerl continued to trouble Haack Sörensen (23-23), but was 30-25 down at the finish. Murat Celik, who lost his first 30-29, fought doggedly for his last chance. The draw was enough for Kang to qualify.
Glenn Hofman finished by far as the best man of the day: the Hague-born, who recently equalized in Belgium with a run of 17, made William Oh languish in his chair and pulled the trigger at 30-8 in 12 innings.
The big smash came from Gülsen Degener's cue. The Turkish, out of the game after her loss in the first match, showed her real class in the match with Ronny Brants and stunned the Belgian to win 30-27. Brants,, who was one carom away from the main draw in Hurghada two years ago, was sent home in a bad mood, beaten to the group win by Vietnamese Quang Hai Dinh.
The day ranking:
1 Glenn Hofman 4-1.818-12
2 Jacob Haack Sörensen 4-1.363-8
3 Barry van Beers 4-1.224-4
4 Jung Ju Shin 4-1.153-6
5 Vinh Ly The 4-1.090-7
6 Jose Maria Mas 4-1.052-6
7 Lars Dunch 4-1.034-6
8 Seung Jin Lee 4-0.952-7
9 Ji Hun Ahn 4-0.857-5
10 Sang Ku Kang 3-1.000-6
11 Wan Young Choi 2-1.311-7
12 Quang Hai Dinh 2-1.040-5.
The most interesting groups for Tuesday:
Group G:
Hideaki Kobayashi
Ronny Lindemann
Jose Maria Mas
Group K:
Birol Uymaz
Therese Klompenhouwer
Jacob Haack Sörensen.
Gülsen Degener shone in her last match against Ronny Brants
Two world champions in the venue: Sung-Won Choi (r) and Jae Guen Kim