3-Cushion
NEW YORK - The final day at the Verhoeven Open in New York is on its way with eight big names, four Belgians, Dani Sánchez as the only all-winner in the prelims with Blomdahl, Tran, Sidhom and Nelin as the big absentees. The knockout are launched today, Sunday at 10.00 in Carom Café: Sánchez-Sayginer, Nguyen-Leppens, Caudron-Horn and Merckx-Forthomme for the quarters. The final is at 17.00 American time this afternoon, 23.00 in Western Europe. The showdown on Saturday night in the four groups of ten players, was most favourable for Caudron, Merckx and Sayginer, shining in the decisive phase.
Frédéric Caudron, after an unlucky start, was on his best with his back against the wall in the crucial, final rounds against Tran (40-24 in 19), Leppens (40-26 in 20) and Teran (40-25 in 18 ). And when Can Capak went down with losses against Leppens and Teran, the world champion could join the finals. Eddy Leppens was the number one in that group with 16 points and 1.648, Caudron was with 14 points and 1.729 the best in average, Quyet Chien Tran, also fourteen points, just missed out the qualification.
Eddy Merckx entered the final stage as number three behind Roland Forthomme and Sameh Sidhom and not only had to gain more match points to be in the best two, but also raise his average. In the sight of the finish, in an ultimate final sprint, Merckx first defeated Forthomme 40-20 in 16 and then lots to Patino 40-35 in 22 innings. Sameh Sidhom knocked down himself after a nice victory over Merckx (40-22 in 24) by losing against Korean Sung-Il Jeong: 40-38 in 32. Therefore, the Egyptian, who made such a strong impression, missed out the qualification. Forthomme was the number one ahead of three players with fourteen points: Merckx (1.693), Sidhom (1.639) and Patino (1.319).
Semih Sayginer first went down against Nelin (40-38 in 22) in the final part and then also was beaten by superior leading Sánchez 40-36 in 28. The Spaniard was the only player who remained unbeaten with 9 victories, Dion Nelin had the qualification for grab, but unexpectedly stumbled over Colombian Carlos Villegas 40-27 in 27. Semih Sayginer was offered a sudden chance to qualify and passed Nelin by a victory over Cataño 40-25 in 28.
The Vietnamese Nguyen and the German Horn shared the booty in their group, in which Torbjörn Blomdahl ran into a loss against the two leaders and Luis Aveiga. The gap with Nguyen and Horn was four match points and also in average, the Swede was the third in this group: Horn 1.759, Nguyen 1.622, Blomdahl 1.571. Martin Horn was group winner with sixteen points and only one loss against William Oh. In the match for the top position, the German defeated Nguyen Quoc Nguyen 40-32 in 24. Nguyen recorded the best run of the prelims against Diaz: 18.
Two of four Belgians are in the finals with 8: Eddy Merckx and Roland Forthomme
The ranking of the eight players for the final round:
1 Dani Sánchez 1.856
2 Roland Forthomme 1.818
3 Martin Horn 1.759
4 Eddy Leppens 1.648
5 Nguyen Quoc Nguyen 1.622
6 Frédéric Caudron 1.729
7 Eddy Merckx 1.693
8 Semih Sayginer 1.602.
The final rankings in the four groups:
Group A:
1 Eddy Leppens 16-1.648-10
2 Frédéric Caudron 14-1.729-10
3 Quyet Chien Tran 14-1.474-10
4 Can Capak 12-1.224-15
5 Javier Teran 8-1.223-11
6 Herbert Szivacz 8-1.556-13
7 Carlos Campino 8-1.032-11
8 Young Gull Lee 8-0.868-7
9 Nikolaus Kogelbauer 2-0.844-7
10 Wilco Meusen 0-0.751-6
Group B:
1 Roland Forthomme 16-1.818-9
2 Eddy Merckx 14-1.693-16
3 Sameh Sidhom 14-1.638-11
4 Hugo Patino 14-1.318-14
5 Seung Il Jeong 10-1.206-12
6 Miguel Torres 8-1.363-13
7 Allan Jensen 6-0.953-9
8 Bassem Salem 4-0.603-8
9 Jhon Hernan 2-0.829-8
10 John Petersen 2-0.520-10
Group C:
1 Martin Horn 16-1.758-12
2 Nguyen Quoc Nguyen 16-1.622-18
3 Torbjörn Blomdahl 12-1.571-14
4 Luis Aveiga 12-1.143-12
5 Fernando Diaz 10-1.218-9
6 William Oh 10-1.188-10
7 Sang Jin Lee 6-0.842-7
8 Samir Derradji 4-0.773-7
9 Dan Johansen 2-0.911-7
10 Kang Lee 2-0,881-6
Group D:
1 Dani Sánchez 18-1.865-16
2 Semih Sayginer 14-1.601-14
3 Dion Nelin 14-1.490-13
4 Huberney Cataño 12-1.305-10
5 John Park 10-0.851-8
6 Carlos Villegas 8-1.124-9
7 Vandenver Reina 6-0.758-7
8 Michael Kang 4-0.966-6
9 Young Ha Choi 4-0.800-7
10 Alexander Weiss 0-0.637-5.
Group C finished with the best general average, 1.147 followed by Group A with 1.143, Group B with 1.122 and Group D with 1.074.