The format for these IPT events certainly lends itself to drama. Thirty-six players began day five but only sixteen would make it through to day six. Six round-robin groups of six players faced off in each group and but three from each group would survive.
The first group saw Karl Boyes have another great day. Karl won four of his five matches today, suffering his only defeat of the tournament thus far at the hands of Jose Parica (8-1). Thomas Engert, too, shone in this group by winning all but one of his matches. Two players, Dennis Orcullo and Yannick Beaufils, had the chance to take the final slot in this group. Orcullo made the cut when he won their head-to-head final match of the day (8-7). Jose Parica and Michael Schmidt could not find the victories required to continue in the tournament.
The next group featured a marvelous display by Ralf Souquet who cruised unbruised through the day until his final match when he fell to Nick Varner on the hill 8-7. Unfortunately for Varner it was a meaningless victory as he had already lost his first four matches and would take to the stands for Friday. Hsia Hui-Kai only lost to Souquet and progressed as well. Dimitri Jungo of Switzerland claimed the last seat on this train while Daryl Peach and Alex Lely joined Varner in the ranks of the bereaved.
Charlie Williams helped keep America's hopes alive with four wins on the day, losing only his final match to good friend Rodney Morris (8-6). This was a fortunate win for Morris as he needed it to make the field on Friday while Efren Reyes also graduated from this group with four wins on the day. The unfortunate three in the bunch consisted of Charlie Bryant, Ben Davies and Jason Miller.
David Alcaide cemented his slot in Fridays line-up by winning his first three matches of the day. The rest of his group went down to the last match to decide who would live or die. Mick Hill and Niels Feijen wound up moving on with three and two records for the day with Feijen besting Quinten Hann on the basis of his win and loss percentage only.. Jason Kirkwood and Darren Appleton found the end of their road today as well.
The next group stayed close all day but finally wound up seeing Corey Deuel, Alex Pagulayan and Mika Immomen passing into another day of play while Ronnie Alcano, Larry Nevel and Fabio Petroni all became spectators for the remainder of the week.
The final group featured our only player still undefeated in the entire tournament. This feat has been accomplished by Francisco Bustamante and makes him the favorite of the field. Oliver Ortmann had remained unscathed for the day until he faced Bustamante in the last match. Little matter as Ortmann will be back to fight another day on Friday. The last place in this group wound up in a three-way tie with Danny Harriman, Antonio Lining and Marko Lohtander all having two wins on the day. Harriman made the grade by having the best win-loss percentage for the week of the three.
Fridays three groups are as follows:
GROUP ONE:
Karl Boyes, Francisco Bustamante, Hsia Hui-Kai, Corey Deuel, Rodney Morris, David Alcaide.
GROUP TWO:
Ralf Souquet, Charlie Williams, Niels Feijen, Dennis Orcollo, Mika Immonen and Danny Harrriman.
GROUP THREE:
Efren Reyes, Mick Hill, Thomas Engert, Oliver Ortmann, Dimitri Jungo, and Alex Pagulayan.
