3-Cushion
HURGHADA - The second day of the World Cup in Hurghada comes near to the end and in the corridors there are already some speculations about the extra qualifications for the next rounds. For tomorrow (Tuesday) Dutchman Barry van Beers will not show up, for the days after tomorrow the two Spaniards Dani Sánchez and Javier Palazón and Dutchman Dave Christiani will not make the trip to Hurghada.
Dani Sánchez, who already couldn't play the World Cup in Medellin, will miss his second major tournament in a row. The organization in Hurghada was hopeful that Dani would play despite an operation last Tuesday. Farouk Barki, the UMB sports director, said: Dani had booked his flight for Wednesday, because he expected that he would be restored within a week. But he has cancelled today. He felt not yet fully recovered.''
There is no direct danger for top twelve position on the world ranking for the Spanish current number nine. Sánchez will lose only eight points of the World Cup in Hurghada 2010.
Javier Palazón and Barry van Beers both have another job and could not get days off for Hurghada. Dave Christiani is struggling with a shoulder inflammation already for some months. Therefore playing billiards is almost impossible for the Dutchman. ,,I now get an intensive treatment, I have to rest a lot, but still it'll take at least a year before I'm topfit again,'' says Christiani , who will continue to play in some competitions.
For the second day there is at least one extra place available in addition to the sixteen players who directly advance tonight. The Greek Konstantinos Bartsokas and German Johan Schirmbrand were the first players who definitely made it to the next round.
Selim Özden was one of the stars of the first rounds with a 17 innings win over the fifteen year old Mahmoud Ayman (30-5), averaging 1.764. And in his second he did even better, when he defeated the German Thomas Kerl 30-6 in 14 innings. That makes him almost certainly the number one of the day.
Gülsen Degener started with a hard-fought victory over the German Roman Bach Maier (30-28 in 29), but lost her second without a chance against Bo Gustavsson.