3-Cushion
ZWAAG - Sixteen players were left from the preliminary rounds of the Grand Prix in Zwaag. They started the eigth finals this afternoon: Raimond Burgman was the first qualified player for the main event, before Jean Paul de Bruijn, Dick Jaspers, Tom Beemsterboer and Glenn Hofman.
In the first session of the quarterfinals Raimond Burgman overpowered Kay de Zwart (50-27 in 41), won Jean van Erp his duel with Tom Beemsterboer (50-31 in 33), was Glenn Hoffman too strong for Herman Slikker (50-25 in 32 ) and won Therese Klompenhouwer her match against Ad Broeders (50-38 in 44).
The Dutch and European ladies champion had a bad start of the tournament, but showed something of her class against Broeders with a start of 15 in 12 innings, 28 in 23 and little runs of 6 and 4 in the final stage.
Glenn Hoffman was especially strong at the end of his match against Slikker, when he finished with 5, 3, 5 and 5 caroms. Jean van Erp gathered seventeen points in seven, 26 in thirteen innings, but then had a slight backsliding in his macht: he needed 33 innings for victory. Raimond Burgman didn't play that great, but scored very regular, more than enough to beat Kay de Zwart.
There were not so many surprises in the preliminaries, in which Burgman, De Bruijn and Jaspers were very solid in their performances and Tom Beemsterboer could compete with the top three with his average.
Jean van Erp, who won two editions of the Grand Prix cycle so far, was seeded as thirteenth, but has already reached the best eight now, where he plays against Glenn Hoffman. Raimond Burgman will meet Therese Klompenhouwer in the evening session.
The second session of the eighth finals:
Jean-Paul de Bruijn-Martien van der Spoel
Dick Jaspers-Barry van Beers
Jan Arnouts-Ad Koorevaar
Huub Wilkowsky-Dave Christiani