Heat is on in New York: who's in, who's out

NEW YORK - The run-up to the final rounds in New York's Carom Cafe is the day of surviving or going out. Who will move up to the finals on Sunday and start the battle for the main prizes in the Verhoeven Open. Who must leave the battlefield after the long marathon of matches on the second last match day. How are the chances for the top players? Two players from the four groups of ten advance to the knockout with eight, for 32 players it will be end of the story, today, Saturday. When you're not on your best, you will miss the final day. Even the world champion, Frédéric Caudron, needs a small miracle to be in the best eight after two losses.

For Eddy Leppens and Can Capak in the A flight the chances are much better than for Caudron and Tran. Eddy Merckx, Sameh Sidhom and Roland Forthomme remained unbeaten in Group B, two of the three go to the knockout. Vietnamese Nguyen Quoc Nguyen took the lead in Group C, Blomdahl, Horn and Diaz are the competitors, Dani Sánchez, Semih Sayginer and Dion Nelin battle it out in Group D with Cataño as the outside player. Roland Forthomme took the best average of forty players in this round (2.051), followed by Dani Sánchez (1.890) and Eddy Leppens (1.832).

From now, the heat is on in Carom Café: who's in and who's out for the finals. The showdown is coming up, all matches are broadcast live by Kozoom. Don't miss the fight between the big guns in three-cushion. The Belgian Caudron looks not on his best. The early knock-down in Seoul's 3CC World Masters, by the Japanese Mori and the Vietnamese Ma, are not far behind, however he won in Porto his second World Cup of 2018. The performances in the Carom Cafe are precarious. Caudron first lost to American Lee (40-39 in 37) and in his last match to Can Capak, 40-32 in 16. Is it a calm before the storm? Because the tournament with the highest prize money ever, the McCreery Champion of Champions at Long Island with 150.000 dollars for the winner, is no so far away.

At the Carom Cafe, Caudron must make a sensational comeback. Three matches before the end, he has to make up a deficit of four match points against Eddy Leppens and Can Capak, both of whom are unbeaten in the lead. The averages: Leppens 1.832, Capak 1.237, Caudron 1.582. The little Vietnamese Tran is certainly not yet out. He is number three in the rankings, two points behind Leppens and Capak with 1.409.

The second of four groups shows even more tension. Roland Forthomme, Sameh Sidhom and Eddy Merckx, in that order of average, are leading with twelve match points, Hugo Patino follows two points down. The three front runners meet each other today, Saturday, in the last matches, only two of three go to the knock-out. The best runs were made in this group: Merckx with 16, Patino with 14, Torres with 13, Jung with 12 and Sidhom with 11.

The whirlwind Nguyen dominates the group in which Blomdahl, Horn and Diaz made a first misstep The Vietnamese won his six matches so far and has 1.765 average. Blomdahl lost to Aveiga (40-32 in 25), Horn to William Oh (40-37 in 28), Diaz to Horn. The German won 40-18 in 13 innings. Luis Aveiga seems to be out for the main draw with two losses (Horn and Nguyen), but showed his high class with his victory against Blomdahl.

Dani Sánchez slowly grows to his best form and played on of the best matches so far against Michael Kang: 40-6 in 11 innings, 3.636 average. Semih Sayginer did the the same in his match against Alexander Weiss (40-10 in 11). The Turkish magician shone in one of his matches with maybe the most exciting shot of the year (see Kozoom website). Sánchez, Sayginer and Nelin have the maximum score: twelve points out of six. Huberney Cataño is the only competitor with two points behind after his loss against Nelin. The top three faces each other in a promising fight.

Rankings on top in the four groups:

Group A:
1 Eddy Leppens 12-1.832-10
2 Can Capak 12-1.237-15
3 Quyet Chien Tran 10-1.409-7
4 Frédéric Caudron 8-1.582-10

Group B:
1 Roland Forthomme 12-2.051-9
2 Sameh Sidhom 12-1.832-11
3 Eddy Merckx 12-1.752-16
4 Hugo Patino 10-1.324-14

Group C:
1 Nguyen Quoc Nguyen 12-1.765-11
2 Martin Horn 12-1.769-12
3 Torbjörn Blomdahl 10-1.516-14
4 Fernando Diaz 10-1.397-9.

Group D:
1 Dani Sánchez 12-1.890-16
2 Semih Sayginer 12-1.667-14
3 Dion Nelin 12-1.538-13
4 Huberney Cataño 10-1.385-10

The first two rounds for today, Saturday (start 10.00 USA time):
Lee-Szivacz Leppens-Campino, Teran-Capak, Meusen-Kogelbauer, Blomdahl-Horn, Lee-Aveiga, Lee-Oh, Nguyen-Diaz, Johansen-Derradji, Caudron-Tran.

Second round:
Jung-Jensen, Forthomme-Patino, Torres-Petersen, Merckx-Sidhom, Reina-Weiss, Sánchez-Cataño, Villegas-Choi, Park-Kang, Salem-Hernan, Sayginer-Nelin.

The general averages in the groups are close to each other so far:

Group A: 1.140
Group B: 1.157
Group C: 1.186
Group D: 1.109.

Semih Sayginer: best shot of the year?

Roland Forthomme on top with the best average of 40 players in the semi finals

Can Capak defeated Caudron and leads his group with Eddy Leppens

Frédéric Caudron needs a great come-back to survive

Dani Sánchez battles it out with Sayginer for the group win

Eddy Merckx, after his victory in 3CC Masters, again one of the top favourites

Dion Nelin on the last day: a fight with Sánchez and Sayginer

Torbjörn Blomdahl, one loss against Aveiga, still in the race for the knock-outs with eight