NEW YORK - The first major triumph in the career of Jérémy Bury can be highlighted as a world class victory. The 35-year-old Frenchman defeated in New York in the final of the Open Verhoeven not only Dick Jaspers, the winner last year, but also Frédéric Caudron, Eddy Merckx and Semih Saygıner. The impressive series of wins brought him a huge success in New York, the 9.000 dollar top prize and the greatest moment in his sporting life. The glorious winner in the famous Carom Café, in a field with so many big names, survived a marathon of matches from Monday in which he showed his mental strength and overcame the hard battle on the final day. The winning carom in the final against Dick Jaspers (40-32 in 16) was followed by an emotional release. Minutes later, after the joy and happiness, the Frenchman returned to earth.
,,What a fantastic success to win in New York, my first big victory in my career'', was his first reaction. But then, immediately, he realized with a big smile: ,,I'm gonna miss my flight to Paris tonight, so unfortunately I will not be there for the party of my daughter's fifth birthday...''
Jérémy Bury has never been a real winner in his young career so far, apart from the great successes with the famous Agipi team. ,,I really wanted to get rid of the reputation of a losing finalist'', he said right after the ceremony. Three times Bury lost a World Cup final, once the final of the Agipi tournament against Sung-Won Choi. In the Carom Café, on Saturday, with full stands and an enthusiastic audience, it was the day of the revenge and the recognition. Jérémy Bury joined the gallery of greats in the New York tournament. The Frenchman's name now flaunts on the honour roll, succeeding Dick Jaspers and amongst others Frédéric Caudron and Torbjörn Blomdahl.
He earned this victory fully with wins on the final day over Frédéric Caudron and Dick Jaspers. ,,I had to put up two tough fights, first against Caudron and then against Jaspers, who came back in the match and was dangerously close at the end. But I kept my concentration and managed to score on the right moments.'' He concluded: ,,I'm so happy, gosh... what a fabulous and unforgettable moment in my career.''
Prior to the final, two Belgians from the top five in the world were stopped in the semi-finals, in which Dick Jaspers defeated Eddy Merckx by a big margin and Jérémy Bury perhaps played the best three innings of his career against Frédéric Caudron. The contest turned into a fabulous fight for the Frenchman, who was 33-23 down, found his trance and scored runs of 10 (33-33), 5 (38-33) and finally two precious ones to decide the match 40-36 in 21 innings.
Frédéric Caudron, earlier on the final day winner against Haeng Jik Kim (40-16 in 19) and Tayfun Tasdemir (40-39 in 22), had to bow to the player with whom he celebrated successes with the Agipi team for years. The Belgian number one in the world could'not repeat what he did against Tasdemir (with five to the finish after the Turk missed his matchball) and had to compete with Merckx for third place. Eddy Merckx, who twice was the losing finalist in New York, reached his breaking point in the semi-final after two strong performances against Torbjörn Blomdahl (40-30 in 22) and in the quarter final against Forthomme, in which he could not show his great quality this tournament: the high runs on crucial moments. Therefore, Forthomme had no chance at all, when Merckx scored a 10 and a 9 and finished 40-24 in 14 innings. When those feared breakaways didn't show up against Dick Jaspers, the Dutch/Belgian derby was a struggle without tension, because Jaspers ran away between the sixth and twelfth inning to 33-16 and then decided the match 40-16 in 14 innings.
The match for third place between the two Belgians, a real classic in three cushion, was won by Eddy Merckx on the line: he bested Caudron 40-38 in 28 innings. Martin Horn took the fifth place by a victory over Tayfun Tasdemir 40-35 in 20 innings.
The highlights of the tournament were the high level matches of Haeng Jik Kim (9 innings for 40 caroms, 4.444), Dick Jaspers (9 innings for 35 caroms, 3.889), Martin Horn, Semih Saygıner and Frédéric Caudron, 35 points in 10 (3.500 average), the top runs of 19 and 17 of Tasdemir and the 18 of Sayginer and the stunning comeback from Martin Horn on the international stage. The German, who announced he will play the World Cup in Hurghada, demonstrated in New York that he can still perform on the highest level. The evidence could be seen in the ranking after the playoffs with fourteen players, where Martin Horn with 1.959 was the best player on average.
The Koreans Keonhwi Cho and William Oh were unexpected high fliers in New York. Torbjörn Blomdahl confessed that he played ,,a bad tournament'', Semih Saygıner started like a rocket, but could not continue on that level, Haeng Jik Kim was at the start not the star player that may be expected from an Asian champion. The Koreans couldn't play a significant role in the final stage. Huberney Cataño, the only Colombian top player, could not make the final step to a high ranking, like Quoc Nguyen Nguyen, the most theatrical of the Vietnamese players. The veteran from that country, Vinh The Ly, made the last eight as the only Asian.
Raymond Ceulemans (79) was one of the players for whom the public came to the Carom Cafe. Watching the master in the tournament where he fought so many heroic battles in the past, was worth a big round of applause. Three wins were not good enough to reach the final round. The respect for the phenomenon was no less.
The Open Verhoeven attracted hundreds of spectators to the Carom Cafe in the days of the final matches. Many players praised the atmosphere and the format of the tournament. Tournament director Charly Brown deserves a huge respect for the way he led the long marathon of matches to the end.
The final ranking of the Verhoeven Open:
1 Jérémy Bury
2 Dick Jaspers
3 Eddy Merckx
4 Frédéric Caudron
5 Martin Horn
6 Tayfun Tasdemir
7 Roland Forthomme
8 Vinh The Ly
9 Quyet Chien Tran
10 Jae Ho Cho
11 Huberney Cataño
12 Murat Naci Coklu
13 Haeng Jik Kim
14 Torbjörn Blomdahl
15 Quoc Nguyen Nguyen
16 Semih Sayginer.
The final four Dick Jaspers, Jérémy Bury, Eddy Merckx and Frédéric Caudron
Jérémy Bury and Dick Jaspers with the trophee
The final sixteen in the Verhoeven Open