NEW YORK - The Spanish world champion Dani Sánchez returns to New York after a few years of absence. The Japanese Orie Hida is the women's world champion and Therese Klompenhouwer comes to the Carom Cafe to defend her title. The Verhoeven Open will start with a tremendous field of players in the upcoming weeks. The big absentee are Jérémy Bury, the champion last year and Pedro Piedrabuena, the Pan American champion.
Raymond Ceulemans still doubts about his participation, but furthermore, in the double edition of this year, New York will again welcome a star parade of three cushion players. The Jennifer Shim International with 27 ladies will be played from Friday 4 to Sunday August 6th. Then followed by the Verhoeven Open with a total of 142 players, from Monday 7th to Sunday 13th August. All matches are broadcast live by Kozoom.
The total field consists of 63 Europeans, six Egyptians, 42 Asians, 12 South Americans and 46 Americans. The total prize money is 34.750 American dollars. The first prize for the men is 8000 dollars, the second 5000, the third 4000 and the fourth 3500. The schedule for the prelims are made on the eve of the tournament when the field is complete.
Michael Kang, owner of the Carom Cafe, is the tournament leader, Charles Brown, the sports director.
The most known participants:
Six players seeded: Dani Sánchez, Dick Jaspers, Frédéric Caudron, Torbjörn Blomdahl, Sung-Won Choi and Jae-Ho Cho.
Also in the field among others: Eddy Merckx, Haeng-Jik Kim, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen, Semih Sayginer, Eddy Leppens, Martin Horn, Dong-Koong Kang, Jung-Han Heo, Sameh Sidhom, Hugo Patino, Huberney Cataño, Luis Aveiga, Quyet Chien Tran , Vinh The Ly, Minh Cam Ma, Roland Forthomme, Peter Ceulemans and Ramon Rodriguez.
The best known ladies at the start:
Therese Klompenhouwer, Orie Hida, Namiko Hayashi, Natsumi Higashiuchi and Mi Rae Lee.
The sports director in the Carom Cafe, Charles Brown and his wife Lynn
The entrance of the Carom Cafe in Flushing, New York