BLOIS – Dutchman Joris van 't Zelfden has an excellent chance for a main role in the semifinals at the Grand Prix for juniors under 21. The tournament is played in the French city of Blois and will conclude today, Sunday, with the finals featuring four players. Dutchman Joris van 't Zelfden was the best winner in the quarter finals with a victory over Amir Ibraimov, one of the big favorites. Joris defeated Amir 35-29 in a brilliant match over 19 innings: 1.842 for Van 't Zelfden, 1.526 for Ibraimov with runs of 8 and 6.
Two Turks and one Dane are the other three players in the semi finals. Mustafa Oguz Ceylan defeated Marcos Morales 35-29 in 25, Ozkul Selahattin was the better of French home player Tangui Duriez 35-31 in 35. Denmark's Daniel Kristiansen, the best player in the qualifiers, defeated Daniel Sainz-Pardo 35-28 in 36.
The semi-finals, live on Kozoom, at 1:30 p.m. are:
Kristiansen-Van 't Zelfden
Ozkul-Ceylan.
The preliminary rounds were completed over two days in the CEB's Longoni Next Gen Grand Prix. That resulted in eight players advancing to the quarter finals from the 21 participants at the start. Denmark's Daniel Kristiansen was number one in the rankings with an average of 1.123. He led Group A ahead of Marcos Morales.
Selahattin Ozkul was the winner in Group B, Joris van 't Zelfden led Group C, and Mustafa Oguz Ceylen was the best in Group D. The most notable match on the second day was between Mustafa Oguz Ceylan and Amir Ibraimov for the leading position in Group D. The Turk defeated his German opponent 25-7 in 14 innings.
The standings at the top after the qualifiers:
- Daniel Kristiansen 7-1.123-6
- Mustafa oguz Ceylan 10-1,106-10
- Selahattin Ozkul 8-1,086-6
- Joris van 't Zelfden 8-1,075-6
- Amir Ibraimov 8-1.114-13
- Tangui Duriez 6-1.105-9
- Marcos Morales 6-1.074-6
- Daniel Sainz Pardo 6-1.010-7
The match between Selahattin Ozkul and Tangui Duriez