3-Cushion
LUXOR - For that one, very tall Turk, it was the day of his life on the billiard. 30-year Emrullah Basegmez from Zonguldak, a village two hundred kilometers from Istanbul, married and father of a one year old daughter, recorded a magic match for a player of his level in the World Cup of Luxor: 30 in 9 innings.
For the other, small and cheerful Turk, it was a weird day, that he will not forget very soon. ,,I have played ten times against this opponent and never lost.'' But today the scoreboard looked very painful: 30-4.
,,That's billiards, you know'', laughed Birol Uymaz sourly. ,,I only had come twice to the table and was already 15-1 down. Because Emrullah started with twelve and from then could do nothing wrong.''
He shows up for the fourth time in a World Cup, after two times in Turkey and one time, last year, in the Greek Peloponnese. His best result so far: third in a Turkish Grand Prix. But a 30 in 9 innings match (averaging 3.333)?
The spectators, on the gradually fuller stands in the Sonesta St George Hotel, looked in great admiration for what would turn out into the best match of the day. Even renowned players as Peter De Backer, Javier Teran, Murat Tüzül, Vinh Ly The, Selim Özden and Tolgahan Kiraz could not come close.
And what about his first match, when Emrullah, who teaches billiard at school to the children in his hometown, couldn't get a grip on the Gabriels table. He lost 30-24 (37 innings) against Manol Minaoglu, who was defeated later by Birol Uymaz.
The showdown in that group was one of the highlights of the third day, in the penultimate rounds of qualifying, in which Javier Teran was the best of the sixteen group winners.
The Ecuadorian bested Myung Woo Cho and Koray Kirman and took four match points with the highest average of the day: 1.666. Tolgahan Kiraz showed his reputation as one of the big talents in Turkey with a second place and 1.500.
Also in the top five today: Herbert Szivacz from Austria (1.463), Mehmet Göhren from Turkey 1.276 and Min Seo Hyun 1.250.
Ten players from the top ten finished over one average, like Emrulah Basegmez, who was the sixteenth in the ranking. Murat Celik (1.575), Myung Woo Cho (1.361), Vinh Ly The (1.358), Gokhan Salman (1.275) and Mehmet Aksoy (1.095) had to leave the tournament with acceptable averages.
The final qualifying rounds show many interesting groups, including Jae Ho Cho, the winner of the first World Cup, who starts with Mehmet Gören and Min Seo Hyun.
The other groups:
Group B: Murat Naci Coklu, Herbert Szivacz, Ra Hee Kim.
Group C: Jean Paul de Bruijn, Tolgahan Kiraz, Yavus Güngördü.
Group D: Roland Forthomme, Javier Teran, Selim Özden.
Group E: Nikos Polychronopoulos, Kostas Papakonstantinou, Murat Tüzül.
Group F: Eddy Leppens, Nguyen Quoc Nguynen, Peter De Backer.
Group G: Ngo Dinh Nai, Xuan Cuong Ma, Ahmet Bayatli.
Group H: Adnan Yüksel, Arnim Kahofer, Tae Soo Lim.
Group I: Choong-Bok Lee, Jae Guen Kim, Therese Klompenhouwer.
Group J: Christian Rudolph, Anh Vu Duong, Claus Foge.
Group K: Hyung Bum Hwang, Ahmet Alp, Amr Saad.
Group L: Ruben Legazpi, Savas Bulut, Emrullah Basegmez.