Two champions, two outsiders in New York finals

NEW YORK - The finals in the Jennifer Shim ladies tournament in New York will be played between three Asians and the world champion Therese Klompenhouwer. Two famous champions in ladies three cushion and two outsiders are competing today, Sunday, for the overall victory at the Carom Cafe in Flushing. Therese Klompenhouwer (Netherlands) is the main favourite, Orie Hida (Japan) the main competitor. The other two finalists are Yoko Nishimoto (Japan) and Ji-Eun Han (South Korea). The Cambodian Sruong Pheavy had to cancel the tournament due to visa problems in her country.

18-year-old Ji-Eun Han is the tournament revelation with an undefeated series of seven matches in the preliminaries, 0.825 on average and the best tournament run so far at 11. Therese Klompenhouwer recorded the maximum score out of six games, 1,239 on average and a run of 10. The third group winner is former world champion Orie Hida with six wins and a loss and 0.740 on average. Hida lost her last match to Ester Park 25-24 in 38 innings.

Therese Klompenhouwer played her best match against Hyun-Ji Yong (25-8 in 15) and beat the number two in her group, Yuko Nishimoto, 25-13 in 25. Ji-Eun Han was the better of Marianne Mortensen (25-5) in 24) and Mélanie Haillier (25-7 in 24). Most remarkable game of the preliminaries was Orie Hida defeating her mother Kazuma Hida: 25-14 in 23.

The quarterfinals on Saturday evening:
Klompenhouwer Park 30-11 in 23
Nishimoto-Sakai 30-24 in 37
Hida-Perez 30-13 in 26
Han-Yong 30-17 in 33.

The semi-finals, Sunday afternoon:
Hida-Han (10:00am New York time)
Klompenhouwer-Nishimoto (11:45am)

The top three in the groups:

Group A:
1 Therese Klompenhouwer 6-12-1.239-10
2 Yuko Nishimoto 6-8-0.743-8
3 Hyun-Ji Yong 6-8-0.595-5

Group B:
1 Ji-Eun Han 7-14-0,825-11
2 Ayako Sakai 7-12-0,738-5
3 Marianne Mortensen 7-8-0.432-5

Group C:
1 Orie Hida 7-12-0.740-6
2 Jackeline Perez 7-10-0.570-5
3 Ester Park 7-8-0.581-5.