NEW YORK - The first day of the Jennifer Shim tournament in New York has made the separation between the ladies that will compete for the overall victory and the players in the lower parts of the rankings. Japanese triple world champion Orie Hida (2004, 2006 and 2008) heads a group of five players that are still undefeated after four rounds.
She is leading the group in which Therese Klompenhouwer is the second best at small distance. The Dutch lady played the best match so far: 25 in 17 innings, facing the mother of Orie, Kazumi Hida 25-2. Orie Hida signed up for the highest run: nine.
The eighteen players finish off the competition in two groups today (Sunday) in which they all meet each other: eight players will be qualified for the final knockout round. The eight players meet on the last day, Monday to determine the overall winner of the Jennifer Shim trophy.
The clash between Therese Klompenhouwer and the 39-year-old Japanese Orie Hida seems to be decisive for the win. Hida stopped playing billiards for several years, but made her comeback two years ago and rapidly joined the world top again.
Two confident outsiders are Karina Jetten (4 wins, 0.741) and Suong Pheavy (4 victories, 0.746). Pheavy is facing two serious opponents today with Therese Klompenhouwer and Orie Hida. Karina Jetten is supposed to battle for the top spot with Namiko Hayashi in the relatively easy group.
Jessica Caudron, first win on Saturday night.
Colombian Mercedes Gonzalez is still unbeaten, but had to stop two of the four matches due to the limit of innings (55) and has 0.571 of average. Jessica Caudron, the wife of the world class player Frédéric, celebrated her first win on Saturday night vs Alina Shim: 25-5 in 42 innings. Both vs Sylvia Eckel and Namiko Hayashi, Jessica was only two points down.
Other contenders for the final rounds are Sylvia Eckel, Ester Park and even Kazumi Hida, who faced a mental blow against Klompenhouwer by a 25-2 score.
Josephine Nidy played four unlucky matches with successively 1, 2, 4 and 5 caroms on the scoreboard.
Orie Hida's mother Kazumi one of the players in New York
The ranking in the two groups after four of eight matches:
Group A:
1 Orie Hida 4-8-1.075-9
2 Therese Klompenhouwer 4-8-1.042-7
3 Suong Pheavy 4-8-0.746-4
4 Kazumi Hida 4-4-0.471-6
5 Ryoko Kobayashi 4-4-0.378-4
6 Olivia Lee 4-2-0.465-4
7 Helga Mitterböck 4-2-0.357-3
8 Helen Lee 4-0-0.287-3
Group B:
1 Karina Jetten 4-8-0.741-5
2 Namiko Hayashi 4-8-0.699-5
3 Mercedes Gonzalez 4-8-0.571-5
4 Ester Park 4-4-0.547-5
5 Sylvia Eckel 4-4-0.435-4
6 Jessica Caudron 4-2-0.506-5
7 Alina Shim 4-0-0.181-3
8 Josephine Nidy 4-0-0.087-1.
The first Sunday session:
Therese Klompenhouwer-Ryoko Kobayashi
Orie Hida-Kazumi Hida
Helga Mitterböck-Suong Pheavy
Helen Lee-Olivia Lee
Mercedes Gonzalez-Jessica Caudron
Karina Jetten-Josephine Nidy
Namiko Hayashi-Alina Shim
Sylvia Eckel-Ester Park.
Ruth Segura completes the scoreboard with her cue