3-Cushion
WONJU - The twosomes with Eddy Merckx/Quyet Chien Tran in Group A and with Murat Naci Coklu/Myeong-jong Cha in Group B are the frontrunners after the first day in the Five&Six Scotch Double event. The leaders started with three wins and one loss in the so-called Shoot-out event, in which in both flights eight couples face each other for a place in the next round. Merckx and Tran lead with the best average in Group A: 1,790. Tayfun Tasdemir and Nguyen Quoc Nguyen, shared leaders in match points in Group B, recorded the best average of all sixteen pairs after one day of play: 1,810.
Most twosomes have played three matches so far, other teams already came four times in action on the first day. It is remarkable that some of the favourite teams don't play a main role so far. Dick Jaspers and Jung-Han Heo are in fifth place in Group B, HaengJik Kim with Roland Forthomme in seventh, Semih Sayginer and Choong-Bok Lee in eighth and last place. In Group A, there is a modest role so far for Dani Sánchez and Sung-won Choi, two former world champions.
Eddy Merckx and Quyet Chien Tran had a flawless start in Group A with the highest score of the day in their first match against Gülsen Degener and Jin-ah Kim: 26-10 in 10 innings, 2,600 on average. After the start, the leaders first defeated Sameh Sidhom and Dong-hoon Kim (24-7 in 11) and Ji-hoon Ahn/Antonio Montes 18-11 in 12. With three wins, the first loss for Merckx/Tran followed against Sánchez and Choi in the fourth appearance: 18-9 in 11.
The numbers two in the ranking, Nikos Polychronopoulos and Bong-ju Hwang are just two match points down, but also played one match less than the two leaders. The Greek and his Korean teammate defeated Ahn/Montes 21-14 in 10, Dion Nelin/Jun-tae Kim 17-7 in 13 and were beaten in the third session by Torbjörn Blomdahl and Chang-hoon Seo 21-10 in 10. The Swedish world champion and his teammate won twice, but lost to Sameh Sidhom and Dong-hoon Kim in the first round 25-7 in 11.
Two couples go head to head in Group B with three wins and one loss. The best match came from Tasdemir and Nguyen against Jaspers and Heo: 21-14 in 9, average 2,333. The opening day started in this group with an amazing result: Therese Klompenhouwer and Ji-eun Han, who have a three point lead at the start, defeated Semih Sayginer and Choong-Bok Lee 19-10 in 14 innings.
The leaders Coklu/Cha won, among others, the important match against Tasdemir/Nguyen, the number two in the ranking: 18-14 in 8. The only loss of Coklu (with Cha) came against another Turkish compatriot. Lütfi Cenet won with Chi-yeon Cho: 14-8 in 12. Another notable win was taken by Tasdemir and Nguyen against Sayginer and Lee with 18-14 in 10.
The ranking in the two groups after the first day of play (win, tie, loss, average, best runs):
Group A:
1 Tran/Merckx 3-0-1,790-9
2 Hwang/Polychronopoulos 2-0-1-1,500-7
3 Blomdahl/Seo 2-0-1-1,419-6
4 Montes/Ahn 2-0-2-1,437-7
5 Nelin/Kim 2-0-2-1,100-4
6 Sánchez/Choi 2-0-2-1,159-6
7 Sidhom/Kim 1-0-2-1,343-7
8 Degener/Kim 0-0-3-0,787-3
Group B:
1 Coklu/Kim 3-0-1-1,282-4
2 Tasdemir/Nguyen 3-0-1-1,810-8
3 Cenet/Cho 2-0-1,085-5
4 Choi/Kang 1-1-1,131-7
5 Jaspers/Heo 1-1-1,187-4
6 Klompenhouwer/Han 1-0-2-0,809-6
7 HaengJik Kim/Forthomme 1-0-3-0,843-6
8 Sayginer/Lee 1-0-3-0,980-7
Murat Naci Coklu, leader in his group with Myeong-jong Cha