3-Cushion
ISTANBUL - The highlights on the first day at the European championship in Istanbul was Nikos Polychronopoulos' match in seven innings with a run of 23, but in the evening sessions Tayfun Tasdemir did even better in six innings. The Turkish player defeated Dani Sánchez defeated 30-16 (5.000 average).
Dick Jaspers, the title holder, had a poor start and needs two good wins in his upcoming matches. In the match against his compatriot Raimond Burgman the world champion couldn't make a strong impression. The two Dutch fought to the last points for the win: Burgman won 30-26 in 21 innings.
The world's number one Frédéric Caudron made no misstep, however his start wasn't that glorious. He beat Frédéric Mottet, another Belgium who made a very bad start, 30-16 in 26 innings. Paolo Andrade, the sympathetic Portugese, defeated Sameh Sidhom in this group 30-19 in 19.
Three players who are seen as favorites for the title, Martin Horn, Lütfi Cenet and Jérémy Bury, are almost seeded for the main and knock-out tournament with sixteen players. Cenet after his victory in the afternoon now defeated Jérôme Barbeillon, who previously was too strong for Filipos Kasidokostas. The Greek recovered with a win against David Penör, but not in a high level match (30-19 in 22).
Martin Horn moved up to his second win in Group G in his match against Marco Zanetti. The German giant was on his best again and finished 30-16 in an excellent thirteen innings match.
Jérémy Bury remained unbeaten with a victory against Javier Palazón (30-17 in 18) and will meet in his last game tomorrow Jef Philipoom.
The Belgian recovered from his defeat in Group E against Palazón. In the second session, in which the two losers met, Philipoom grabbed the win against his weak opponent, the Swiss Danielsson, in 15 innings: 30-7.