Miguel Torres in New York’s top three

NEW YORK - The Belgian world champion Eddy Merckx tops the list of players at the start of the final rounds in the Open Verhoeven in New York. Miguel Torres is the sensation so far in second place right before Frédéric Caudron, Torbjörn Blomdahl and Pedro Piedrabuena.

Raymond Ceulemans qualified thanks to an excellent victory over Eddy Leppens. Semih Sayginer (two losses out of five), Eddy Leppens, Sameh Sidhom, Luis Aveiga, Hugo Patino and Javier Teran are the best known international players that did not make the finals.

It was all sour grapes for Belgian Eddy Leppens, who played a fantastic qualification. He was also very strong in the first final rounds, but then lost two matches against his country fellows Eddy Merckx and Raymond Ceulemans. Therefor he was send home with the best average of all 24 players (2.183)

Semih Sayginer suffered a big loss against the defending champion Pedro Piedrabuena and then needed a win in the last round against Miguel Torres to survive and join the last eight. The American, undoubtedly the revelation of the tournament, remained unbeaten and defeated Sayginer 40-32 in 26 innings with a run of ten.

Torbjörn Blomdahl is the number one in Group A with eight match points and 1.757. Frédéric Caudron lost in the last evening round against Roland Forthomme (40-34 in 16). The Belgians took eight match points, Caudron with 1.813 average, Forthomme with 1.759.

Eddy Merckx won his group with an unbeaten series and 1.739, Raymond Ceulemans shone with 1.624. Pedro Piedrabuena, last year’s winner, qualified second (eight match points and 1.817) behind Miguel Torres (ten points, 1.258).

The final round immediately shows some very interesting matches, including the game between the number one and two of last year: Piedrabuena and Blomdahl.

The top eight of the rankings:

1 Eddy Merckx, 1.739
2 Miguel Torres, 1.258
3 Frédéric Caudron, 1.813
4 Torbjörn Blomdahl, 1.757
5 Pedro PiedrabBuena, 1.817
6 Roland Forthomme, 1.759
7 Raymond Ceulemans, 1.624
8 Gerhard Kostistanski, 1.172.

The first matches in the final round:

Eddy Merckx-Gerhard Kostistanski
Pedro Piedrabuena-Torbjörn Blomdahl
Frédéric Caudron-Roland Forthomme
Raymond Ceulemans-Miguel Torres.