Today, Friday, the 35th World 3-Cushion Team Championships in Viersen/Germany saw a few further matches of the group stage. However, the first quarterfinalists have also been determined. In group D the teams from Sweden and Vietnam won, in group C Spain and the Netherlands qualified for the round of the last eight.

The hosts from Germany, who drew with Mexico in Group B today, still have to wait. Martin Horn could be relied on as usual as the veteran won against Christian Hernandez with 40:29 points. Meanwhile on table 2, Cengiz Karaca received a lesson against Javier Vera. The German could not counter the runs of eleven and nine points and lost clearly with 6:40.

After Korea won 4:0 against Egypt, the showdown between Germany and Korea will take place on Saturday. Horn/Karaca need a draw to reach the quarterfinals. Egypt have already been eliminated after two defeats.

In Group A, the defending champions Turkey had to settle for a draw against Greece. Tayfun Tasdemir won his match, but Semih Sayginer lost to Nikos Polychronopoulos. For the first time in this championships, a singles-match ended in a draw. That took place between the teams of the USA and the Japanese. So Carlos Villegas‘ victory over Takao Miyashita ultimately brought the decision in favour of the Americans.

Meanwhile the Spanish had a strong performance in the group stage with Daniel Sanchez and Ruben Legazpi. They both won their singles matches against Jordan and thus reached the knockout phase of the tournament as group winners without any problems.

The Dutch had much more problems and had to score against France in their last group match. But after Jean-Paul de Bruijn lost his game against Jerome Barbeillon and Dick Jaspers was also down against Mickael Devogelaere, it didn’t look good for Team Oranje. But then Jaspers played his A-game in the decisive phase and reached the necessary forty points first. Devogelaere still had a chance for a draw, but he already missed the second of four necessary points by a hair’s breadth.

Sweden had no difficulties to reach the quarterfinals in group D. Both Torbjörn Blomdahl and Michael Nilsson won clearly against their opponents from Austria, which meant first place in their group. Vietnam and Belgium were in a close race for second place. A draw should be enough for the Asians and this was achieved thanks to a victory by Duc Anh Chien Nguyen. The victory of Peter de Backer was of no help to the Belgians.

Two more rounds of the group stage are now scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday, before the quarterfinals at 05:00 and 08:00 p.m. CET.

PHOTOS

➡️ 10.03.23 | 2nd Round: Netherlands vs Spain / Jordan vs France
➡️ 10.03.23 | 2nd Round: Germany vs Mexico / Korea vs Egypt
➡️ 10.03.23 | 2nd Round: Turkey vs Greece / USA vs Japan
➡️ 10.03.23 | 3rd Round: Sweden vs Austria / Belgium vs Vietnam
➡️ 10.03.22 | 3rd Round: Netherlands vs France / Jorda vs Spain