3-Cushion
SEOUL - The women's three cushion world champion, Therese Klompenhouwer (Netherlands), and world number two Sruong Pheavy (Cambodia) are invited for two Korean Grand Prix tournaments with a total of five players in the upcoming weeks. The three Korean opponents are Korean ranked top three. The total prize money over two tournaments is 19,2 million Korean won, converted to 15,500 euros. The winner in each tournament receives 5,000.000 won, 3,700 euros.
The two Korean events are played in a series of Grand Prix tournaments and organized by Five & Six New Carom, business partner of UMB. The venue is the MBC studio, Korea's main tv station. Therese Klompenhouwer was invited as the world champion to meet the four strongest players in the Korean rankings. The Dutch lady will almost certainly be invited again in the summer months to two Grand Prix tournaments.
The game format is made attractive for the tv broadcasts. The players meet each other in the first tournament in a Round Robin in matches of three sets won of 7 caroms.. The numbers one and two at the end play the final against each other to five sets won.
Therese Klompenhouwer is certainly the favourite for victory. ''The opposition is strong,'' she knows. ''You can never be sure in matches to such short sets, it is a kind of lottery.'' Sruong Pheavy is her main competitor, Jieun-Han is a feared opponent as well. The 19-year-old Korean won the Open Verhoeven in New York in 2019 after beating Japanese Orie Hida in the semi-final and Therese Klompenhouwer in the final 30-28 in 31 innings.
The players in the Grand Prix are:
Therese Klompenhouwer (Netherlands)
Sruong Pheavy (Cambodia)
Jieun-Han (Korea)
Jina Kim (Korea)
Shinyoung Lee (Korea)
The days of the matches are:
First tournament: Tuesday, January 12-Sunday January 17
Second tournament: Tuesday, January 19-Sunday January 24 (Saturday January 23 is a day off).
All matches can be followed on youtube.
Korean player Jieun Han (19) won the New York Open Verhoeven in a final match against Therese Klompenhouwer
Sruong Pheavy, the world's number two lady
