NEW YORK - On the day the decisions for the final sixteen places are about to fall, the world's number one Frédéric Caudron, the world champion Torbjörn Blomdahl, public hero Semih Sayginer, Jae Ho Cho and William Oh suffered their first losses in the Verhoeven Open. That does not say much about elimination or chances to survive, because the battle in the five play-offs groups is still open. Dick Jaspers, Eddy Merckx, Murat Naci Coklu, Tayfun Tasdemir, Quet Chien Tran, Huberney Cataño and Keonhwi Cho remained unbeaten in five rounds.
Martin Horn, struggling against elimination after his unexpected loss to Sang Jin Lee, showed his formidable resilience against Frédéric Caudron. The German had a furious start and dominated the entire match against the Belgian: after 14-4 in three innings (run 11), 29-15 in eight, Horn went smoothly to a 35-16 in 10. ,, My best match so far '', said Martin Horn, who now needs one more win from two matches to commit themselves to the best sixteen of the tournament. ,,I had not such a good day, yesterday, but in this match against Caudron I got some good positions and everything went fine. Therefor I was able to take the initiative from the start.''
Jérémy Bury also performed well in his flight against Semih Saygıner, in a minor match with a lot of defensive playing. In the final stage the Frenchman, fighting for his last chances, showed his teeth. Sayginer still led by 33-31, lost two, three opportunities and didn't score anymore in his last five innings (35-33 in 31).
Huberney Cataño, who's confidence is sky-high, continued his winning streak with his best match in the tournament so far: the Colombian dealt with Jae Ho Cho, who had no chance at all and lost 35-21 in 13. Eddy Merckx came with an eleven out of the starting blocks against Ahn Duc Chien Nguyen. The Vietnames proved to be a hard fighter, but could not come closer than a gap of five at the end. Keonhwi Cho, an amiable Korean who's not a famous player in the circuit until now, excelled in his match against Blomdahl, won his fifth match in a row and put the Swede under pressure after the 35-20 (15 innings). Quyet Chien Tran leads in this group with Kim, Vinh Ly The is two points down.
Dick Jaspers (victory over Brian Knudsen with 35-12 in 16) and Murat Naci Coklu, who killed a big part of the illlusions of Roland Forthomme (35-15 in 21) are alredy secored their spots in the final round. Dong Koong Kang disappoints in this group with three losses, Raymond Ceulemans, Haeng Jik Kim and Gökhan Salman are vying for the second place behind Coklu.
Martin Horn after his victory over Caudron close to the final rounds
Murat Naci Coklu, one of the unbeaten players after five matches
Keonhwi Cho, one of the new kids on the block in Korea
Eddy Merckx has not really been in trouble so far thanks to his high runs
Jérémy Bury defeated Sayginer and keeps an eye on the finals