3-Cushion
NEW YORK - Myung-Woo Cho, the young Korean player, moves into the spotlights these days in American's famous Carom Cafe in New York. The youngster is one of the four leaders in the field of four with ten players in the second round of Verhoeven Open. Eddy Merckx, Torbjörn Blomdahl and Chang-Hoon Seo lead the other rankings. The two group winners of each group qualify for the final. Myung-Woo Cho is the best after three rounds with 6 match points, 3.387 on average and a run of 14.
The Korean, the brilliant kid from Dani Sánchez' sponsor stables, ruthlessly cruised to victory in the first sessions facing an American with Korean roots: Eric Kwon. Little Cho was thrilling his new fans in the house in a 9 innings match, leaving his desperate opponent with a hateful 0 on the score: 35-0. Cho's score: 3-6-5-4-3-4-0-3-7. That was by far the most striking match on the first day, when Dani Sánchez was surprised in his opening match by Markus Dömer and Sameh Sidhom by Raymon Groot.
The ranking in Group A is divided in two parts. Five players have the maximum of six match points and are competing for the two places for the final. Five players suffered three losses and are out of the game. Myung-Woo Cho, Semih Sayginer and Miguel Torres are the best three on average, William Oh and Harry Peña complete the upper half.
The ranking in Group A:
1 Myung Woo Cho 6-3.387-14
2 Semih Sayginer 6-1,779-9
3 Miguel Torres 6-1.567-10
4 William Oh 6-1.329-9
5 Harry Peña 6-1.296-6
6 John Park 0-1.208-5
7 Adrien Tachoire 0-1.090-7
8 Ad Broeders 0-1.070-7
9 Dong Wook Oh 0-0.698-4
10 Eric Kwon 0-0.666-4.
Semih Sayginer, the runner-up in Myung-Woo Cho's group
Dion Nelin was not the brilliant that he was in his previous performance, but like Eddy Merckx and Nikolaus Kogelbauer, he remained unbeaten in Group B. Merckx was solid as everwith wins over Olesen, Diab and Mortensen in 23, 21 and 19 innings. Nelin had a poor start against Diab (35 in 40) and followed his mission with wins over Olesen in 31 and Lee in 21. Young German Kogelbauer makes a bid for the top positions, Arnim Kahofer lost one match, against Lee, 35-20 in 25.
Ranking in Group B:
1 Eddy Merckx 6-1,666-10
2 Dion Nelin 6-1.141-7
3 Nikolaus Kogelbauer 6-1.071-8
4 Arnim Kahofer 4-1.168-6
5 Martin Olesen 2-1,034-9
6 Kang Lee 2-0.989-7
7 Ngoc Ahn Thi Pham 2-0.944-6
8 Young Gull Lee 2-0.795-8
9 Lukas Mortensen 0-0.870-7
10 Khalil Diab 0-0.761-6.
Eddy Merckx, three solid wins, Arnim Kahofer, two wins, one loss
Torbjörn Blomdahl and Roland Forthomme are the two leaders in Group C, where four players are topping the bunch with four match points. Blomdahl lived up to the odds and defeated the Danes Petersen and Johansen in 14 and 16 innings. Forthomme won in 32, 20 and 23 innings. Jun-Tae Kim, who played the best group match against Lee (11 innings) is a strong competitor, despite a loss against Villegas. Gerhard Kostistanski lost to Kim, Knudsen to Kostistanski and Patiño to Knudsen.
Ranking in Group C:
1 Torbjörn Blomdahl 6-1.909-11
2 Roland Forthomme 6-1.400-8
3 Jun-Tae Kim 4-1,689-9
4 Gerhard Kostistansky 4-1.529-6
5 Brian Knudsen 4-1.263-8
6 Hugo Patiño 4-1.234-7
7 Mario Villegas 2-1,028-11
8 Sang-Jin Lee 0-1.111-7
9 Dan Johansen 0-1.014-8
10 Claus Petersen 0-1.012-5.
Torbjörn Blomdahl, three wins, runs of 11 and 10
Roland Forthomme on maximum score after three laps
The false start of Dani Sánchez and Sameh Sidhom (missteps in first round) brings Chang-Hoon Seo and Seung-Il Yeong on top in Group D. German Markus Dömer was the black horse for Sánchez, 35-15 in 19, the Dutch American Raymon Groot surprised Sidhom 35-28 in 22, but lost his next two matches.
The ranking in Group D:
1 Chang-Hoon Seo 6-1,615-9
2 Seung-Il Yeong 6-0.954-5
3 Sameh Sidhom 4-1.555-8
4 Dani Sanchez 4-1,465-10
5 Markus Dömer 4-1.217-7
6 Hong Van Luu 2-1.140-6
7 Raymon Groot 2-0,977-8
8 Michael Kang 2-0.794-6
9 Tae-Kyu Lee 0-1.220-6
10 Vandenver Reina 0-0.714-5.
