WONJU - The World 3-cushion Grand Prix in Wonju, Korea, is halfway in the first stage of the preliminary rounds. The world's top players rule; the six ladies in the field are in the bottom ranks. Dick Jaspers (4 wins, 2,070), Sung Won Choi (3 wins, 2,631), Jung Han Heo (3 wins, 2,071), Quyet Chien Tran (3 wins, 2,021), Myeong Jong Cha (4 wins, 1,292) and Marco Zanetti (4 wins, 1,810) are the leaders in the six groups of eight players. How are the six ladies doing in the event for which they were invited?
The six players at this Grand Prix all have the potential to finish among the top five in the Women's World Championship. Therese Klompenhouwer and Jieun Han are the standouts. The 18-year-old Ga Yeon Jang, number 1 in South Korea, unexpectedly won one set against Dick Jaspers. The comparison with the PBA top, to which strong lady players as Orie Hida and Sruong Pheavy departed, comes to mind. But when Klompenhouwer, Han and Jang performed around 1,000 average in the Grand Prix in Wonju, Hida and Pheavy were eliminated in the last PBA tournament with 0.476 and 0.824.
Therese Klompenhouwer, the 40-year-old world champion, has played three matches, she won once and is still facing matches against Eddy Merckx, Duc Anh Chien Nguyen, Su Yeong Park and Jun Hyuk Son. The one win was against young Nikolaus Kogelbauer of Austria (2-1, 1.178), the qualification depends on the next games. Therese is the only one of six ladies hier just over 1 average (1.014), with a best run of 7.
Speaking about the other five ladies, Therese says: ''They are competing well, offering some opposition, only it hasn't come to a victory yet.'' The Dutch lady thinks it is a great experience for the ladies to play amidst the world top. However, she advocates a separate event for ladies. ''I surely think it's great the way we are playing now, because it's a fantastic format and tournament. But of course my preference would be to play the Team Challenge for example and then start in a Round robin with eight of the strongest ladies. I spoke about it with Torbjörn Blomdahl, who is also in favor of that.''
We made a little tour!!
Ga Yeon Jang could not really shine after the set win against Jaspers and lost her games against Bong Joo Hwang 2-0 (0.800) and TTT Nguyen 2-1 (1.181). Her chances to qualify seem minimal, as just above her in the rankings are Jun Tae Kim and Myung Woo Cho.
Jieun Han, the 24-year-old Korean who won the New York tournament once, will not come away from last place after her three losses and 0.980 on average. Above her in the rankings are two young players, Alessio D'Agata and Mahmoud Ayman with two match points each and higher averages. Jieun Han lost to Sidhom 2-0, D'Agata 2-0 (0.555) and Nelin 2-1, where she achieved her best average (1.476).
Güzin Mujde Karakasli, the 31-year-old Turkish, started against Blomdahl with 2-0 and a nice 1.071 average. The sequel was much less, as against Miyashita it was 0-2 with 0.470 and against Cha 0-2 with a laborious 0.238. That puts her in last position with 3 losses and 0.538.
Noriko Fukao, the 35-year-old Japanese and second oldest following Klompenhouwer, was number 3 at the last World championship. Noriko is not really growing in the tournament, as in her last match against JJ Garcia she was hopeless with only 6 points in two sets and losing 23-4 and 20-2, which meant only a 0.315 on average. Burak Hashas and Tayfun Tasdemir were also 2-0 too strong for the Japanese, who is at the bottom of her group with 0.528.
Nhi Hoanguyen Nguyen (24) is a rather unknown player, who is still considered a growth talent. She is meeting the world's greats for the first time in this World Grand Prix, as in her first match in which she was swept away by Dani Sánchez 16-5 and 26-3. That's a tough learning curve for the Vietnamese number 1, who also lost to Jin Youl Kim and got her only set win against Seo. The total of 0.542 over three games puts her firmly in the last position.
Japanese lady Noriko Fukao