3-Cushion
NEW YORK - The former Sang Chun Lee tournament in New York will be played with a record number of European players. The field is led by Belgian Frédéric Caudron, the world champion and reigning title holder in New York. Other big names are Raymond Ceulemans, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Dick Jaspers, Eddy Merckx, Kyung-Roul Kim and Tayfun Tasdemir.
The total number of players in the tournament, which is played in the Carom Café in Flushing, New York from 15 until 20th of July, is 85, of whom 36 are from European and Asian countries. The sports directors are Charles Brown and Michael Kang. The last year's winner was Frédéric Caudron, who defeated his country man Eddy Merckx in the final. Raymond Ceulemans made it to the semi-finals.
The Verhoeven Open, as the tournament is called now, has one of the strongest line-ups in the history of the event. The only remarkable absentees are Pedro Piedrabuena, who won two years ago in a final against Blomdahl and the Colombian Henry Diaz, the Pan American champion since this week.
The Americans are the best represented (33), followed by Denmark (13), Colombia (8) Germany (6) and Sweden (6).
The best-known players on the entry list so far:
Frédéric Caudron, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Dick Jaspers, Raymond Ceulemans, Eddy Merckx, Kyung-Roul Kim, Murat Naci Coklu, Tayfun Tasdemir, Alexander Salazar, Julian Torres, Vin The Ly, Robinson Morales, Sameh Sidhom, Huberney Catano, Luis Aveiga, Hugo Patino, Michael Kang, Julian Morales, Harry Pena, Gerhard Kostistanski, Jacob Haack-Sorensen, Allan Lys Jensen, Nalle Olson and Bo Gustafsson.