GURI - The knock-out stage at the ladies World championship in Guri turns into a battle with six Asians, one American and one European player. Therese Klompenhouwer, the reigning champion from the Netherlands and Ester Park from New York are among the last eight with the triple world champion Orie Hida and the new generation of three-cushion players. The champions for the future, said Klompenhouwer in her comment after the preliminaries.
The 33-year-old Dutch, by far and for many years the best in Europe, for the first time the best in the world two years ago, is concerned for the future. ,,The Asian talents have a much better school and teachers and especially in South Korea, there is a fantastic billiards culture. You find the billiard centers on every street corner, often with ten or more tables which are occupied all day. We've been in clubs with a great atmosphere. We don't have that in our countries, that's why the Asian level will skyrocket in the coming years''
The 40-year-old Orie Hida from Tokyo already was an exponent of the continent with her three world titles. Now, she once again seems to be the main contender for Klompenhouwer. The opening day of the Japanese was strong, the last match in the preliminary rounds much less (25 in 40 innings). ,,Therese is the favourite, of course, but I can beat her'', Orie announced before the start of the quarterfinals. ,, And the Korean players have a chance to make it to the podium.''
Orie Hida is a monument in women's billiard with her honor role. The Japanese first daughter in a family with two children, is playing billiards since she was six years: ,,I grew up in the billiard room of my parents, I still practice there now. My father is my trainer and coach. We have two match tables and two pool tables, the room is outside the center of Tokyo. For this World championship, I practiced ten to fifteen hours per week, but I also work four days in a week in an office.''
She lives on her own and never got married: ,,I have my house at onlya five minute walk from the billiard room and I have a friend who loves billiards, since twelve years. Maybe we get married in the future. Of course I would also like to have children, I hope it is still possible at my age...''
Billiards always was and is an important part of her life. ,,I won my first three World championships in which I started, in 2004, 2006 and 2008, all three of them in finals with Dutch players: Gerrie Geelen, Therese Klompenhouwer and Karina Jetten. After these three wins, I could not win two times, now, in Korea, is my sixth World championship.''
About the Japanese players, she says: ,,We don't have young talents anymore, unfortunately. The three players here at the World championship are not so young, Namiko is over thirty, me and Yuko are forty. The world champion in Tokyo in 2012, Natsumi Higashiuchi, could not qualify at the Japanese championship which I won. In the men's three cushion, we have one young player, Yusuke Mori, he now lives in Korea.''
The eight finalists for the knock out stage
Therese Klompenhouwer finished the preliminaries with the best average: 1.293, ahead of Orie Hida 0.880, Mee Rae Lee 0.781, Shin Young Lee 0.722, Ester Park 0.701, Min A Kim 0.631 and Yuko Nishimoto 0.609.
Mee Rae Lee, Ester Park and Yuko Nishimoto were the other group winners.
The Belgian Danielle le Bruyn had to forfeit her last qualification match, because she got sick during the breakfast in her hotel and was taken to hospital for an investigation. She did not return in time to play her match. With a win in her third match the 59-year-old Belgian, who is the organizer of next year's ladies World championship in Halle-Zoersel, still had a chance to reach the knockouts. She returned to her hotel room later in the day and recovered well.
Namiko Hayashi, one of the Japanese players who returns to the knock outs
The final ranking in the preliminary group stage:
Group A:
1 Therese Klompenhouwer (Netherlands) 3-6-1.293-8
2 Orie Hida (Japan) 3-4-0.880-9
3 Marianne Mortensen (Denmark) 3-2-0.534-4
4 Irena Hambalkova (Czech) 3-0-0.342-2
Group B:
1 Ester Park (US) 3-4-0.701-3
2 Namiko Hayashi (Japan) 3-4-0.577-5
3 Karina Jetten (Netherlands) 3-2-0.580-4
4 Gülsen Degener (Turkey) 3-2-0.472-4
Group C:
1 Me Ree Lee (Korea) 3-6-0.781-7
2 Shin Young Lee (Korea) 3-4-0.722-6
3 Danielle le Bruyn (Belgium) 2-2-0.483-3
4 Monique Wilkowski (Netherlands) 3-0-0.475-4
Group D:
1 Yuko Nishimoto (Japan) 3-6-0.609-4
2 Min A Kim (Korea) 3-4-0.631-6
3 Helga Mitterböck (Austria) 3-2-0.476-3
4 Gerrie Geelen (Netherlands) 3-0-0.308-5
The matches for the quarterfinals at 17:00:
Therese Klompenhouwer-Namiko Hayashi
Orie Hida-Shin Young Lee
Yuko Nishimoto-Ester Park
Mee Rae Lee Min-A Kim.
One of the stylish Korean referees for the knockout rounds