3-Cushion
NEW YORK - The Belgian parade of top players, launched in the Verhoeven Open in New York for the first final round, wants to demonstrate its power in the upcoming days. Frédéric Caudron, Eddy Merckx, Raymond Ceulemans, Eddy Leppens and Roland Forthomme had a blistering start: they remained unbeaten in two sessions with impressive results.
The five matadors, masters in recording short matches and high runs, have taken the start in the Big Apple with only one goal: to dominate the prestigious tournament and battle for the main prizes, in a field with great competitors like Torbjörn Blomdahl, Semih Sayginer, Pedro Piedrabuena, Luis Aveiga and Sameh Sidhom.
After one day and two rounds in this first final round, Eddy Leppens, who's excellent form has continued all the way through so far, is the best in the entire field of 24 players. They compete in four groups of six players for eight places in the main event.
Leppens played, like in the prelims, his two matches (now at 40 caroms) in less than twenty innings: he beat Miguel Torres 40-18 in 19 innings and Mazin Shooni 40-17 in 16 (2.286 overall average).
Torbjörn Blomdahl leads one of the other three groups with four match points and 2.051. Frédéric Caudron is the number one in Group B with 1.905, Semih Sayginer is the leader in Group D with 1.951.
Both Blomdahl as Leppens signed up for the best matches so far: 40 points in 16 innings. Eddy Merckx needed one more inning against Julian Torres, Frédéric Caudron defeated Joel Switala also in seventeen innings (40-10).
The positions in the four groups after two sessions.
Group A:
Torbjörn Blomdahl is the only one who took the maximum four points out of two. Hugo Patino and Gerhard Kostistanski are favorite for second place, good for a place in the final round. Patino beat Kostistanski (40-31 in 33/32), but lost in his second match to Brian Yi (40-36 in 32). Daniel Reyes couldn’t excel with two losses.
Group B:
Frédéric Caudron and Roland Forthomme are at full blast, undefeated and make a bid for the top two positions. Sameh Sidhom, the third contender, was suffering a loss against Forthomme (40-25 in 25). Caudron defeated Alan Jensen, the Dane who won all his matches in the preliminary rounds, 40-31 in 25. Forthomme also beat Joel Switala (40-14). Caudron averaged 1.905 in two games, Forthomme 1.509. Alan Jensen lost his second match (Carlos Palafox) and must have felt bitter sweet.
Group C:
The Belgian carnival is mainly in this group an interesting fight: Eddy Leppens, Eddy Merckx and Raymond Ceulemans are leading the parade with four match points. They will battle for two top positions. Leppens has 2.286 Merckx 1.702 and Ceulemans 1.481. Three other players in the group, Harry Pena, Julian Torres and Mazin Shooni, are eliminated with two losses in two rounds. Julian Torres has the best average with 1.229.
Group D:
Semih Sayginer, the magician and defined leader in the group, made a flawless start against Sang Jin Lee (19 innings) and Javier Teran (22 innings). His biggest competitors in this group are Luis Aveiga, Pedro Piedrabuena and Miguel Torres. Piedrabuenan and Aveiga already met each other: the Pan American champion Piedrabuena won 40-32 in 22 innings, but then lost to Miguel Torres, who like Sayginer has four match points. The Turk looks very good and wants to show he's right back up there. Javier Teran has done in this tournament with two losses and 1.091.
Torbjörn Blomdahl was the only player with a run over 10 in 24 matches. He made 12.
In Group C with Leppens, Merckx and Ceulemans the best overall average was played: 1.364.
Group D with Sayginer, Piedrabuena and Aveiga recorded 1.305.
Group B with Caudron, Forthomme and Sidhom 1,247, Group A with Blomdahl 1.108.
In the first round today (Saturday, 10.00 New York time) there are two major matches in the schedule: Caudron-Sidhom and Ceulemans-Merckx.