NEW YORK - Torbjörn Blomdahl and Dick Jaspers have made a superb start in the semifinal rounds of the Open Verhoeven in New York. The Swede and Dutchman won the first two matches in their group showing high averages: Blomdahl played 2.222 over two matches, Jaspers 2.069. Most surprising in the first rounds with 28 players was Raymond Ceulemans' loss against Allen Jensen, who was in the best 28 thanks to the lotto. The Dane had a big margin after a few innings and finally beat the legend 30-26 in 26 innings.
Frédéric Caudron leads Group A after winning matches against Song Lim (30-10 in 18) and Robinson Morales (30-14 in 17). Ly The Vin had a very poor start with two losses. Robinson Morales defeated the Vietnamese 30-8 in 9 innings, the best match in two rounds. Nalle Olsson has also two wins and is still like Caudron unbeaten.
Torbjörn Blomdahl tops Group B, the group of death, after victories over Björn Lohmander in ten innings and Ricardo Carranco in 17. The other players who remained unbeaten in this group were Tayfun Tasdemir and Murat Naci Coklu. The Turks follow Blomdahl closely, Tasdemir with 1.538 average, Coklu 1.500. Eddy Merckx suffered a surprising loss against Coklu: the Belgian was 30-16 behind after 16 innings, recovered in the other match and has 2.000 average. Yet he must enforce the qualification in his matches against Blomdahl and Tasdemir.
Dick Jaspers had the best start in Group C with victories against Sang Jin Lee and Thai Loc in 16 and 13 innings. Lars Dunch, who starred in the preliminaries, also has two wins, but only 0.968 average. Sameh Sidhom has four match points and 1.875.
Huberney Catano continues his excellent tournament with two wins, including one in just 14 innings, an average of 1.622 over two matches. Alexander Salazar won twice and has 1.364. Raymond Ceulemans beat Claus Foge in 23 innings but lost to Allen Jensen in 26.
The semifinals are played with four groups of eight players, whose first two qualify for the main tournament with eight players.
The players who qualified from the preliminaries:
Group A: Huberney Catano (1.563) and Sang Jin Lee.
Group B: Miguel Torres (1.316) and Björn Lohmander.
Group C: Alexander Salazar (1.552) and Song Lim.
Group D: Murat Naci Coklu (1.546) and Gerhard Kostistanski.
Group E: Sameh Sidhom (1.028) and Claus Foge.
Group F: Lars Dunch (1.250) and Eddy Merckx (1.721).
Group G: Hugo Patino (1.128) and Nalle Olsson.
Group H: Kyung-Roul Kim (1.242) and Jorge Rubio.
Group I: Ly The Vin (1.485) and William Oh (1.455).
Group J: Tayfun Tasdemir (1.613) and Henry Pena.
Eddy Merckx recorded the best average in the preliminaries despite a loss against Lars Dunch.
Two best third went along to the semifinals: Robinson Morales and Ricardo Carranco. In addition, two players from the lottery were qualified: Thai Loc and Allen Jensen.
The tournament, which is broadcast on Kozoom directly, continues today with the next games in the semifinals.
The first matches today:
Caudron-Olsson, Ly The Vin-William Oh, Torres-Morales, Blomdahl-Rubio, Merckx-Carranco, Tasdemir-Coklu, Ceulemans-Pena, Catano-Salazar, Foge-Jensen, Sing Jin Lee-Thai Loc.
