Ten groups in qualifications, four seeded players

NEW YORK - The Verhoeven Open in Carom Cafe in New York starts off today (Tuesday 15 July) with the preliminaries in ten groups of seven players. Four top players are seeded for the main event: the defending champion Frédéric Caudron, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Dick Jaspers and Raymond Ceulemans.

The tournament starts at 9:30 (European time 15:30) with the first matches on ten tables. Kozoom will broadcast all the matches live.

The group leaders in ten groups are Huberney Catano (Colombia), Miguel Torres (USA), Alexander Salazar (Colombia), Murat Naci Coklu (Turkey), Sameh Sidhom (Egypt), Eddy Merckx (Belgium), Hugo Patino (USA) Kyung-Roul Kim (Korea), Ly The Vin (Vietnam) and Tayfun Tasdemir (Turkey).

Hugo Patino comes in the first round to the table, Eddy Merckx, Kyung-Roul Kim, Tayfun Tasdemir and Ly The Vin in the second round (10.20), Huberney Catano, Miguel Torres, Alexander Salazar and Michael Kang in the third round at 11.30.

Group D is the most feared group with Murat Naci Coklu, Robinson Morales and Gerhard Kostistanski.

The group formats are:

Group A: Huberney Catano, Peer Harpsoe, Michael Mikkelsen, Raye Raskin, Jae Cheon Seong, Sang Jin Lee, Julian Torres.

Group B: Miguel Torres, Won Sik Kang, Ricardo Carranco, Sun Shin, Sionisio Cid, Bjorn Lohmander, Ronald Rubio.

Group C: Alexander Salazar, Tae Kyu Lee, Michael Kang, Carlos Villegas, Thomas Tullberg, Song Lim, Jim Shovak.

Group D: Murat Naci Coklu, Walter Jurado, Robinson Morales, Charlie DelLorme, Gerhard Kostistanski, Edmund Mevissen, Arturo Herrera.

Group E: Sameh Sidihom, Claus Foge, Oscar Villamerez, Jan Olsen, Kim Starrup, Martin Olesen, Jacob H Sörensen.

Group F: Eddy Merckx, Ira Lee, Jan Berggren, Young Gull Lee, Mark An, Henrik Gellner, Lars Dunch.

Group G: Hugo Patino, Nalle Olsson, Khalid Diab, Hyuk Yoon, Can Kazikoglu, Luca Tomassetti, Francisco Loaizi.

Group H: Kyung-Roul Kim, Erik Wienke, Werner Klingberg, Jim Watson, Jorge Rubio, Christian Portilla, Kim Bengtsson.

Group I: Ly The Vin, Michael Jansen, Roger Sequeira, Thai Loc, Bo Gustafsson, Juan Carlos Gonzales, William Oh.

Group J: Tayfun Tasdemir, Edward Gomez, Harry Pena, Jerry Geist, Allan Jensen, Juan Uribe, Christ Bartzos.