ANKARA – The start of the World Cup in Ankara this Monday on the first day immediately saw a strong Turkish winner. Forty-one-year-old Necdet Yalcin from Balikesir, a tourist stronghold on the west coast, finished with a remarkable average in the first qualifiers: 2.068 over two matches against Jose Maria Mas from Spain and Theo Napolini from Albania. The best starter is the modest number 22 in the Turkish rankings, number 708 in the world rankings, married and father of 7-year-old daughter Ipek. He tells about himself: "This is my second World Cup in Turkey. I would like to say that I get a lot of support from my club Galikesir Büyüksehir Belediyespor. I have reached the semi-finals once in the Turkish championship."
Three Turkish players topped the rankings, Vedat Yilmaz and Hakan Incekara as numbers two and three, followed by the Greeks Papakonstantinou and Tsokantas. Incekara is making a remarkable comeback. He is a player with a lot of World Cup experience, but after a long break to take care for his sick mother, he didn’t play any tournaments in the last two years and has fallen out of the top 1000 in the world rankings. Colombian Alexander Salazar, once number 3 at the 2013 World Championship in Antwerp, is also nowhere to be found in the rankings and is making a bid for new recognition in Ankara.
Greek Anthanasios Matiakis dragged away is place from the gates of hell. He won his first match in 58 innings and was given an unexpected chance by Vietnamese Luan in his second match: the Greek escaped with a one-point lead and won the group. Egyptian Mustafa Fadl also made a lucky jump to the next round: wins in 50 and 54 innings.
Hakan Incekara, back from being away for two years
Alexander Salazar, once in 2013 the nr. 3 at the World championship in Antwerp
Tomorrow, Tuesday, are the most remarkable matches:
Necdet Yalcin-Adrien Tachoire
Hakan Incekara-Denizcan Akkoca
Alexander Salazar-Takeshima O
Alessio D’Agata-Amir Ibraimov
Tom Löwe-Nathan Duriez
The day winners on Monday:
- Necdet Yalcin 4-2.068-7
- Vedat Yilmaz 3-1.666-7
- Hakan Incekara 4-1.578-10
- Kostas Papakonstantinou 4-1.578-9
- Dionisis Tsokantas 4-1.463-6
- Murat Celik 4-1.224-8
- Alexander Salazar 4-1.200-6
- Daniel Kristiansen 4-1.132-6
- Kaptan Bayramoglu 4-1.090-4
- Georgios Tsokantas 4-0.952-7
- Ecevit Eray Erdogan 4-0.937-5
- Javier Gomaris 4-0.722-8
- Mehmet Aksoy 4-0.697-4
- Athanasios Matiakis 4-0.612-4
- Mustafa Fadl 4-0.576-6
- Recep Bulut 3-0.882-6