ANKARA – Two Vietnamese, two Turks and one Colombian climb to top five spots in the rankings on the second day at the World Cup in Ankara. The winner on the opening day, Necdet Yalcin, finished with the same match points and average as Nguyen Chi Long, the first Vietnamese. The most notable player this second day was home player Mehmet Aksoy, who shone with two curious match wins. The Turk first faced Herbert Szivacz, who started with 6 and ran up to 15-2 in four innings. Aksoy's final sprint was brilliant. Trailing 29-24, the Turk finished with 6 for 30-29. In his second match facing Vietnamese Thon, Aksoy took off with 4 and 11 to 19-6 in 7 and again finished with 6. The bewildered Thon made two instead of three caroms in the final inning: 30-29.
Two groups deserved special attention because of the way they unfolded. Mehmet Aksoy had the best final sprint twice with the minimum score: Viet Hoang Minh had to swallow a bitter loss with 1,500 over two matches. The Turk and the Austrian Szivacz struck at decisive moments with runs of 11, but Aksoy achieved the maximum match points.
Denizcan Akkoca, the junior champion, eliminated Hakan Incekara 30-24 in 33. Alexander Salazar played two solid matches and won in 22 and 24 against his compatriot Daniel Moreno and Japanes Takeshima O. Necdet Yalcin, who is on top of the rankings for two days, comfortably defeated two Frenchmen: Camberlain 30-19 in 24, and Tachoire 30-17 in 14 innings.
The Turk Ecevit Eray Erdogan faced two young talents in Group G. He first defeated Amir Ibraimov 30-29 in 34 and later Alessio D'Agata 30-22 in 20. Vietnamese player Hoan Tat Nguyen played the best game of the day against Karina Jetten, winning 30-9 in 11 (2.727). Tom Löwe, in a modest group, won with three two-pointers on average (0.872 against 0.833 and 0.809).
The groups for Wednesday:
Group A: Ronny Lindemann, Tom Löwe, Mehmet Goren
Group B: Vangelis Moulos, Georgios Tsokantas, Arnim Kahofer
Group C: Ali Gulbay, Denizcan Akkoca, Jose Miguel Soares
Group D: Radek Novak, Recep Bulut, Kévin Vasseur
Group E: Maxime Panaia, Riad Nady, Javier Gomariz
Group F: Ahmet Alp, Murat Celik, Reggy Brouwers
Group G: Tarik Yavuz, Mashhour Abu Tayeh, Muharrem Peker
Group H: Emrullah Basegmez, Ecevit Eray Erdogan, Claus Maurer
Group I: Dimitrios Seleventas, David Pennör, Joey de Kok
Group J: Mikaël Devogelaere, Dohyun Kim, Huub Wilkowski
Group K: Mehmet Aksoy, Atsushi Kiyota, Jordy de Kruijf
Group L: Birol Uymaz, Vedat Yilmaz, Lukas Stamm
Group M: Van Ly Dao, Alexander Salazar, Jean Paul de Bruijn
Group N: Volkan Cetin, Hoan Tat Nguyen, Alain Saeys
Group O: Sergio Jimenez, Necdet Yalcin, Fatih Korkmaz
Group P: Nguyen Chi Long, Muammer Rahmet, Serdar Bas.
Vietnamese Nguyen Chi Long, on high run the better of Yalcin
Necdet Yalcin, two days on top of the rankings
Colombian Alexander Salazar survived two days and moves on to third day
The day's ranking on Tuesday:
- Nguyen Chi Long 4-1.578-9
- Necdet Yalcin 4-1.578-6
- Hoan Tat Nguyen 4-1.538-10
- Alexander Salazar 4-1.304-7
- Vedat Yilmaz 4-1.250-4
- Mehmet Aksoy 4-1.224-11
- Dohyun Kim 4-1.200-4
- David Pennör-1.111-11
- Ecevit Eray Erdogan 4-1.111-7
- Muharrem Peker 4-1.090-8
- Murat Celik 4-0.983-7
- Javier Gomariz 4-0.983-5
- Recep Bulut 4-0.983-4
- Denizcan Akkoca 4-0.909-5
- Georgios Tsokantas 3-1.071-6
- Tom Löwe 2-0.872-4