Germany's first match was a good draw against
Belgium with a set balance of 3-2 for the Germans. Christian Rudolph
showed his iron nerves and won the first set by 15-14. This result
helped his compaign Martin Horn to ight stronger and egalysed
in sets. Horn played well making 10 points in 3 innings, but Francis
Forton never let him back to table.
So Rudolph and Horn only have to play a draw in the next match
versus Vietnam to reach quarter finals. But if they win this match
they override the Belgium team and stay on top of the group. This
will mean they get a "easier" opponent in their quarter
final.
Who can stop these Swedish team? They started like a world champion and beated Greece with 4-1 in sets. Torbjörn Blomdahl played as souverain as ever and won in straight 2 sets. Michael Nilsson had a tiny break let Nikos Polychronopoulos to egalyse in sets. But after this, he managed his way and finished the game with a serie of 10 in the 6th inning - an other 100 Euros for the childrens house project.
The Dutch team shown why they are favourites in flight E beating Corea without any lost set. Dick Jaspers and Raymond Burgman played an average more than 1.7 and can book their place in quarter final quiet sure.
Turkey started first time with new players. Lütfi Cenet and Ismail Yasin played a draw in their first match ever in Viersen. Spanish top player Daniel Sanchez won by 2-1 versus Cenet, his team partner Rafael Garcia had no chance against Yasin. The first set ended 15-4, the second set was a bit more interesting: 15-12.
Now the audience is filling, all viewers want to get the best places to see the German match versus Belgium. At 9 p.m. Christian Rudolph playes on billiard 1 versus Eddy Leppens, Martin Horn on the other table against Francis Forton.
First opponent of Germany will be Belgium beated Vietnam 4:1. Francis Forton won in straigt two sets versus Vietnamese Chi Tranh Tran and so prepared the way to quarter finals for Belgium. In his first set Forton played a serie of 10 points. For each two digit serie the German Billiard Union promised to spend 100 Euros to a childrens house project in Krefeld. Accelerated by Fortons victory Eddy Leppens reached a 2-1versus Anh Vu Duong, although the Vietnamese won the first set in only 6 innnings with 15:5. Tomorrow noon Germany and Vietnam fight for the last quarter final tickets in this flight H.
The match between Greece and Danemark had much more thrill. Filipos Kasidokostas made it quickly and won versus Danish Dion Nelin by 15-10 and 15-11 in 11 and 7 innings. On the other table Tonny Carlsen egalysed for Danemark with a straight 2-0 against Nikos Polychronopoulos. In total sum Greek playes made only one more point than Danemark, so Greece seemed to be the "better" team. So today at 9 p.m. Greece meet title holder Sweden and tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. the audience will see the replay of last year's final Danemark versus Sweden.
4:00 p.m.
In a high class encounter Daniel Sanchez from Spain beat French top player Jérémy Bury. Bury clinched the first set in only three innings, but Sanchez managed to equal in three innings as well. Sanchez then went on to win the decider in his ninth visit at the table. But in the other match of this encounter Ricardo Garcia could not convert his lead. Jean-Christophe Roux clinched sets two and three for a 1-1 draw between Spain and France. Because of the better average it is Spain which has to play the next match versus Turkey already today while France meets Turkey only on Saturday.
Also the match between Korea and Japan ended 1-1, but Korea got one set moiré. That means that Korea is playing the Netherlands already today while Japan has to wait until tomorrow. Korean Sung Won Choi beat Mitsuru Obara in both sets clearly (15-2. 15-5), while Tako Miyashita won for Japan versus Kim Kyung-Roul by 2-1 sets.
2:30 p.m.
The main round has started already. Qualifiers from the round robin round one were Korea, France, Greece and Vietnam. Germany and Belgium therefore meet Vietnam in flight H. In group E the Asian encounter between Korea and Japan is going on, while in flight F Spain meets France. It was the average which decided the order between Greece and France by a fraction (1.245 vs. 1.247). Korea had a clearly better average (1.548) while Vietnam was with a set balance of 6-4 at the bottom of the qualifiers.
At the end of the first round Egypt just missed out a major upset versus France. Ihab El Messery missed four set points for a 1-1 before Bury converted his first match point. Because of Bury’s straight win Hesham Saad’s 2-1 versus Roux did not pay of.
Korea made its way into the next round because of Sung Won Choi 2-0 success. Although Rui Costa won 2-1 for Portugal the southern Europeans missed qualification because of one more set lost