3-Cushion
NEW YORK - The last qualifications in the Verhoeven Open in New York on Saturday night led to the best eight players for the final rounds. Belgian top gun Eddy Merckx was the only player with the maximum score of 40 in the four groups: 18 match points, 1,607 on average, best run 12. Myung-Woo Cho achieved the best average of all semi-finalists, 2,000, Dani Sánchez scored the best run with 15. The final field consists of two Belgians, two Koreans, one Swede, one Turk, one Spanjard and one Dane.
Sameh Sidhom was the only dropout from the world's top ranking. William Oh and Harry Peña were eliminated on average by Myung-Woo Cho. Roland Forthomme played the best and terrifying match on the last day with a victory over Torbjörn Blomdahl: 35-21 in 7.
The final field with the last eight for the battle to step onto the podium:
Eddy Merckx 18-1,607-12
Torbjorn Blomdahl 16-1,867-11
Semih Sayginer 16-1,741-12
Dion Nelin 16-1,401-13
Myung-Woo Cho 14-2,000-14
Dani Sanchez 14-1,889-15
Chang-Hoon Seo 14-1,637-9
Roland Forthomme 14-1,592-13.
The first matches this Sunday (10.00 New York, 16.00 Western Europe):
Merckx-Forthomme
Nelin-Sánchez
Sayginer-Cho
Seo-Blomdahl
The group overviews:
Group A:
Young Korean Cho was passed by Semih Sayginer in his group on the last day after two losses. Sayginer won the battle for the top position, 35-24 in 24 innings. Myung-Woo Cho was also beaten by his fellow countryman William Oh, the Kozoom CEO in Korea: 35-28 in 17. The leader, Sayginer lost one match against Harry Peña 35-23 in 14 innings. Myung-Woo Cho, William Oh, and Harry Peña finished in the footsteps of Sayginer with 14 match points. Miguel Torres was fifth, Adrien Tachoire climbed in the final phase to sixth place with three wins, followed by Ad Broeders with the same match points.
Ranking in Group A:
1 Semih Sayginer 16-1,741-12
2 Myung-Woo Cho 14-2,000-14
3 William Oh 14-1,380-9
4 Harry Peña 14-1,375-11
5 Miguel Torres 8-1,162-10
6 Adrien Tachoire 8-1,073-10
7 Ad Broeders 8-1,071-7
8 John Park 4-1,022-8
9 Eric Kwon 2-0,742-7
10 Dong Wook Oh 2-0,705-5
Semih Sayginer, number 1 in his group after win against Cho
Myung-Woo Cho, two losses on final day, still the best on average
Group B:
The match for the number one position was won by Eddy Merckx, who was the better of Dion Nelin on one point. The Dane started an attack halfway and put Merckx in the match under pressure with runs of 9, 7 and 9. The Belgian countered with 5-8-3 and had the best final sprint, trailing 32-29, with 4 and 2. Martin Olesen won his last four matches and climbed to third place. Nicolaus Kogelbauer lost his last four matches. Merckx played his best against the young Austrian: 35-10 in 15.
Ranking in Group B:
1 Eddy Merckx 18-1,607-12
2 Dion Nelin 16-1,401-13
3 Martin Olesen 12-1,031-11
4 Kang Lee 10-1,024-12
5 Nikolaus Kogelbauer 10-0,967-8
6 Arnim Kahofer 8-1,075-8
7 Young Gull Lee 6-0,857-8
8 The Pham 6-0,817-6
9 Lukas Mortensen 4-0,778-7
10 Khalil Diab 0-0,663-6
Dion Nelin, loss against Merckx 35-34, solid second in the group
Group C:
Roland Forthomme's explosion in the match against Torbjörn Blomdahl, the top two players in the group, was the best of the day. The Belgian was the only player who could beat Blomdahl and did so in a brilliant game (7 innings, 35-21). After two innings, Blomdahl led 8-2. Then Forthomme started his attack with 6-6-4-6 and a final run of 11 (33 in his last 5 innings). Jun-Tae Kim was sent to third place by losses to Blomdahl (35-30 in 25) and Forthomme (35-26 in 30).
Ranking in Group C:
1 Torbjörn Blomdahl 16-1,867-11
2 Roland Forthomme 14-1,592-13
3 Jun-Tae Kim 12-1,441-11
4 Gerhard Kostistansky 12-1,370-9
5 Hugo Patiño 10-1,300-9
6 Mario Villegas 10-1,200-11
7 Brian Knudsen 8-1,231-8
8 Sang-Jin Lee 6-1,078-9
9 Claus Petersen 2-0,710-6
10 Dan Johansen 0-0,792-8
Torbjörn Blomdahl, best in his group despite a loss to Forthomme
Roland Forthomme, best match on final day beating Blomdahl in 7 innings
Group D:
The tension at the end reached the climax due to the Sameh Sidhom's win against Dani Sánchez, in which the Egyptian was 25-6 down and then passed the Spaniard by a final attack, 2, 10 and 3 (35-31) in 15). The three leading players, Sánchez, Seo and Sidhom, finished with the same match points, when Sánchez won against Seo 35-24 in 13 innings. Sidhom was the ultimate and unfortune loser on average. Markus Dömer and Raymon Groot finished in the shadow of the three players on top on positions 4 and 5. Michael Kang, who started with 6 losses, closed the tournament with three wins. VandenVer Reina, the Colombian Kozoom reporter, finished with two wins and was second last before Tae-Kyu Lee.
Ranking in Group D:
1 Dani Sanchez 14-1,889-15
2 Chang-Hoon Seo 14-1,637-9
3 Sameh Sidhom 14-1,595-10
4 Markus Dömer 12-1,239-8
5 Raymon Groot 10-1,105-9
6 Seung-Il Jeong 8-0,962-8
7 Michael Kang 6-0,944-7
8 Hong Van Luu 4-0,988-6
9 Vandenver Reina 4-0,801-9
10 Tae-Kyu Lee 2-1,102-7.
Dani Sänchez, finally led the bunch as the best on average ahead of Seo and Sidhom
Chang-Hoon Seo finished second and outplayed Sidhom on average