NEW YORK - Twelve caroms in three innings (1-2-9) and a blistering final shot of thirteen. Ronald Forthomme showd on the second day of the Verhoeven Open with a 25 caroms match in 4 innings (6.250 average) why he is one of four owners of the world record run (28), why he took the Belgian title this year and how he can grow in his best days (ask Torbjörn Blomdahl and Eddy Merckx) to the very highest level.
The Carom Cafe in Flushing witnessed a glorious moment today in one of the opening matches, Forthomme's opponent Young Gull Lee suffered his most dramatic match in his career. The poor loser was the victim of the Belgian’s high class match: 25-0 (!) and stood with a perplexed face barely two minutes at the billiard.
The man who’s called Rolandinho by his friends seemed in a great form with 2.128 over four matches, but the top match was followed by a sneeky loss in his next performance, in which he faced Mazin Shooni. The American started the duel flawless, with a run of seven and at the end a nine which brought him near to the win: 25-19 in 18/17 innings.
The tension in this group thus is growing. Roland Forthomme needs a hard fight to get to the next round. Gerhard Kostistansky bested Charles DeLorme in the same round 25-12 (29 innings) and is the leader in this group with ten match points out of five.
Mazin Shooni remained unbeaten as well with his victory over Forthomme. The Belgian dropped to third place and needs at least a win against Kostistansky.
Eddy Merckx is with four wins the leader in his group (B) and with 2.000 generally also the best player after four sessions. Luis Aveiga is an excellent number two, also with eight out of four.
Javier Teran, Harry Pena and Daniel Reyes are ready for an exciting fight in Group : all three with eight points out four games. Teran is with 1.000 the highest in average.