3-Cushion
ANTALYA - The tension is slowly rising to a peak on the second day of the Antalya World Cup, where again 72 players are struggeling at the twelve billiards of Hotel Limak Limra in Antalya for a place in the next round. The Spaniard Carlos Crespo and the Dutchman Wim van den Berg are on their way to start off in a decider in their group.
Murat Celik played a curious role in his group: he lost his first match against Volkan Cimentepe, but recovered with a magnificent match and the best average so far: a 30-6 victory over Thomas Kerl in 12 innings (2.,500).
The Swede Nalle Olsson is well on his way, just like David Martinez in a pretty poor group. Mehmet Yavaz won his second match in the group against Allan Jensen (30-16), but has to wait for the result of Semsettin Azimli who beat him in a hard-fought match. Hamit Akkaya is one of the best with 1.500, Dong Hoon Kim needs a victory over Bo Gustavsson to pick up a ticket for tomorrow.
Muhammed Cavusoglu and Chi Yeon Cho get ready for a hard battle against each other. Both the Turk and the Korean defeated Piet Blankers, Cavusoglu with 30-16 in 20, Cho even in 19 (1.578).
Omer Karakurt, the number two of the junior World championship, had a poor start with a loss against yesterday's best Adem Özcelik (30-26). Just about to lose his second as well, against Dae Woon Lee, the young Turk suddenly showed a glimpse of his class. At 28-24 behind, Karakurt closed with six. The Korean missed his last point to equalize.
Wim van den Berg defeated German Norbert Ohagen in his first appearance 30-25. Spaniard Carlos Crespo then needed one carom in the equalizer against Ohagen. Crespo and Van den Berg cross swords for the qualification.