Three players on top with two sessions to go

NEW YORK - The American champion Pedro Piedrabuena is the only player who's still unbeaten after seven of nine rounds in the 2012 Open Verhoeven. He is leading in Group B before Robinson Morales and Hugo Patino, both of them two points down. Raymond Ceulemans is at four points from the leader.

Torbjörn Blomdahl and Roland Forthomme are on top in Group A and will battle in their mutual match for first place. Both players lost one match. Eddy Leppens is two points down and is the challenger in the two last sessions.

The two winners of the groups will play the final of the tournament, the numbers two play for third and fourth place.

Pedro Piedrabuena is the most impressive player of the field so far with his unbeaten sequence and the highest average of all twenty players: 1.788. In the last two matches, he will face Robinson Morales and Hugo Patino, two competitors who are only two points down.

Raymond Ceulemans, with two losses, looks to be eliminated for first place. Glenn Hoffman recovered from a minor start and won amongst others his matches against Miguel Torres and Carloman Ortiz in 14 and 15 innings, with which he climbed up to fourth place.

Torbjörn Blomdahl will meet in his last matches the Belgians Roland Forthomme and Eddy Leppens, Roland Forthomme meets Blomdahl and Hofman.

The ranking on top:

Group A: 1 Torbjörn Blomdahl 7-12-1.725

2 Roland Forthomme 7-12-1.669

3 Eddy Leppens 7-10-1.456

4 Glenn Hoffman 7-8-1.588

Javier Teran and Mazin Shooni like Hofman gathered eight match points.

Group B:

1 Pedro Piedrabuena 7-14-1.788

2 Hugo Patino 7-12-1.601

3 Robinson Morales 7-12-1.520

4 Raymond Ceulemans 7-10-1.203.