3-Cushion
NEW YORK - Miguel Torres was one of the players that performed last year in the Juanjo Trilles Cup for artistic players. It was the forerunner of the challenge between Frédéric Caudron and Dick Jaspers, won by the Belgian earlier this year.
But Miguel Torres shows in the 2012 Open Verhoeven in New York that he's not only an outstanding artistic player. The 42-year old American also has specialized in three-cushion. He was one of the star players in today's preliminaries in the 2012 Open Verhoeven, where all groups are one match away from decision.
Miguel Torres not only won his match against Roland Forthomme, one of the famous Europeans, by surprise: 25-10. He also shone with a run of fifteen. The loss means for Forthomme that he has to win his last match against Jerry Geist. Two other players in this group gathered ten points out of six matches: the South American Alesander Salazar and Miguel Torres.
Miguel Torres has excellent chances to qualify after his victories against Forthomme, William Oh, Robert Tracy, Joel Switala and Jerry Geist. The American meets in his last group match Laureano Gomez.
The preliminaries are in the crucial phase.
Mazin Shooni already has been seeded in Group A, where Wim van Cromvoirt, Jong Min Lee and Freddy Cato play for second place.
Hugo Patino and Julian Morales more than likely will qualify in Group B.
Eddy Leppens and Glenn Hoffman have qualified for the semifinals in their group. The Belgian and the young Dutchman won all their matches so far and will meet each other in their last match for first place in the group.
Javier Terán is the leader in Group E with twelve points. Alex Alzate and Carlos Man share second place with ten points.
Pedro Piedrabuena is unbeaten and leading by twelve points in Group F. Allan Jensen lost one of his six matches. Kim Staarup can threaten him for second place.
Andres Naranjo, finalist in the Pan-American championships, leads Group G with twelve points before Sonny Cho and Brian Yikan with ten points. Karina Jetten is outplayed, but won her matches against Han Jun Shin (25-22) and the thriller against Jim Watson (25-24).
The Pan-American champion Carlos Campino showed himself superior in the preliminaries. He won six matches and has qualified for the semis. The Colombian Robinson Morales lost one match against Carlos Campino. Morales has to win his last match. The opposition comes from Lloyd Wallace, who is two points down.
After next (and last) round, in the semi finals there will be 20 players competing in two brackets, round robin format. The top 2 from each of the 8 groups (16) will be added by Torbjörn Blomdahl and Raymond Ceulemans (to 18). Two players from the preliminaries wil complete the semif finals to 20.