Today, Thursday noon, the 35th World Team 3-Cushion Championship started in Viersen/Germany. This prestigious event has been held in the Festhalle since 1990 and once again a total of 16 teams will play for the World Championship crown until Sunday.

Host Germany has to deal with Egypt, South Korea and Mexico in group B. The duo Martin Horn and Cengiz Karaca started this afternoon against the strong Egyptians with Sameh Sidhom and Riad Nady and won this match in a thriller with a score of 4:0. Horn won against Sidhom, while Karaca had been trailing against Nady for a long time. It was only at the very end that he was able to overtake his opponent and win 40:39.

In the second match of this group, Mexico surprisingly beat South Korea 4:0 and thus caused the first sensation of this World Cup.

Meanwhile, the defending champions from Turkey made a commanding start to the tournament. Semih Sayginger had a brilliant run of 16 points and therefore had no problems to beat his American opponent Hugo Patino. At the other table, Tayfun Tasdemir played just as well and finally celebrated a 40:17-win against Carlos Villegas.

The game between Japan and Greece ended in a draw. Nikos Polychronopoulos scored for the Greeks, while Takao Miyashita was successful for Japan. In the final standings, the Greeks had a small advantage on their side due to the better average.

With the Netherlands, another favourite could successfully conclude its first match in Group C. The multiple world champion Dick Jaspers remained just as unchallenged against Jordan as Jean-Paul de Bruijn at the second table. Spain and France, on the other hand, played a match with an absolutely open outcome. In the end, the score was slightly in favour of the Spaniards. Dani Sanchez won with 40:36, Ruben Legazpi was even closer with 40:38.

Group D has already played two matches. First, Sweden drew with Belgium, before the Scandinavians followed up with a splendid 4:0-win over Vietnam in the evening. Quyet Chien Tran, who shone in his first appearance against Austria with a high-run of 17 points, had to admit defeat to Torbjörn Blomdahl in the duel with Sweden. Since his fellow competitor Duc Anh Chien Nguyen also lost to Michael Nilsson, Vietnam now has one win and one loss.

Austria, on the other hand, first lost to Vietnam as mentioned, but then at least secured a draw against Belgium in the evening.

PHOTOS

➡️ 09.03.23 | 1st Round: Vietnam vs Austria / Belgium vs Sweden
➡️ 09.03.23 | 1st Round: Netherlands vs Jordan / France vs Spain
➡️ 09.03.23 | 1st Round: Germany vs Egypt / Korea vs Mexico
➡️ 09.03.23 | 1st Round: Turkey vs USA / Japan vs Greece
➡️ 09.03.23 | 2nd Round: Austria vs Belgium / Sweden – Vietnam