3-Cushion
NEW YORK - The Verhoeven Open in New York, the former Sang Lee tournament, which is played in the Carom Café from 15 until July 20 this year, can welcome one of the strongest line-ups ever. Frédéric Caudron leads as the world champion a field of 73 players (provisional list) with many big names. Raymond Ceulemans is one of the guests of honor.
The tournament came to a fantastic climax last year when Caudron bested in the finals his eternal rival Eddy Merckx 40-35 in 19 innings. The semifinals were even more spectacular. Eddy Merckx survived against Torbjörn Blomdahl a match point at 39-32 and then finished himself with a run of eight. Frédéric Caudron defeated Raymond Ceulemans 40-16 in 11 innings.
The Americans are in the field this with 27 players in majority. Furthermore there are 13 Danes at the list, seven Germans and six players from Sweden. The big billiard countries, such as South Korea, Colombia, Belgium and the Netherlands are still a little behind.
For Belgium play Caudron, Merckx and Ceulemans, for the Netherlands are the known names Dick Jaspers and Glenn Hoffman.
Pedro Piedrabuena is one of the top favorites in the tournament in which he has often sparkled and once beat Torbjörn Blomdahl on his way to the final win. From the world top will play this year: Caudron, Blomdahl, Jaspers, Merckx, Ceulemans, Kyung-Roul Kim, Tasdemir and Coklu.
Other known names are Pedro Piedrabuena, Alexander Salazar, Glenn Hoffman, Julian Torres, Robinson Morales, Ronny Lindemann, Hugo Patino, Michael Kang, Mazin Shooni, Bo Gustafsson, Nalle Olsson, Gerhard Kostistansky, Jacob Haack-Sorensen, Allan Lys Jensen, Lars Dunch and Claus Foge.
The total prize money is $ 34,750.
The winner receives $ 8000, 5000 for the number two, 4000 for the number 3, 3500 for the number 4.
The deadline for registration is June 27.
The tournament leaders are Charles Brown and Michael Kang.