3-Cushion
MENEMEN/IZMIR - Semih Saygıner is the strong winner of an invitational tournament with ten top Turkish players in the suburb of Izmir, Menemen. Semih won the main prize, around 2,500 euros, after he showed to be the very best in the final against Tasdemir 3-0. The set scores were 15-10, 15-3 and 15-10. Sayginer played 2,368 on average in the final, Tasdemir played 1,352. On the podium were also Lütfi Cenet and Can Capak, who were the two group winners in the semi-finals.
The tournament was organized by the Menemen's town to celebrate Liberation Day. Semih Sayginer: ''The organisation was very good, the people were enthusiastic and want to organize bigger and better tournaments in the future. It was good for the promotion of billiards in this region and was broadcasted online on youtube with many Turkish viewers.''
The winner, Semih Sayginer, looked ahead to the coming months, in which the UMB tournaments, such as the World Cup in Veghel and later the World Cup and World Championship in Sharm El Sheikh, will presumably continue. Semih: ''We are all looking forward to it after such a long period without international events. For us ,there are no travel problems anymore, the Turkish players are all vaccinated, so we can certainly travel to Veghel and later to Sharm El Sheikh. We hope for a quick restart of all the big tournaments.''
In the Menemen tournament ten players were divided into two groups of five, the two best of each group played the semi-finals. Lütfi Cenet won the so-called Kirmizi Grup with 8 match points and 1,609 ahead of Semih Sayginer, Tarik Yavuz, Gökhan Salman and Daghan Külegec. In the other group, the Beyaz Grup, Can Capak was the best with 6 match points and 1,518 ahead of Tayfun Tasdemir, Murat Naci Coklu, Sarp Kaya and Ünal Beran.
The battle for a final place was contested between Semih Saygıner and Can Capak and Lütfi Cenet and Tayfun Tasdemir. Sayginer defeated Capak 3-0, Tasdemir won against Cenet 3-1. That led to the final, in which Sayginer was the proud winner with a generous score and high average.
Murat Naci Colu became third in his group with 2 victories and 2 defeats. Sarp Kaya became fourth with 2 match points, Ünal Beran got no match points.
Tarık Yavuz became third in the other group with four match points, Gökhan Salman got 2 match points and became fourth before Dağhan Külegeç.
