NEW YORK - What a match, what a record and what a sensation. European and Dutch champion Therese Klompenhouwer surprised in New York herself and the whole world of three cushion with one of two best ladies matches ever played (in the record books Karina Jetten played a match in ten innings as well at the Dutch championship).
Therese Klompenhouwer defeated in her third match of the day Manuel Lindao from Ecuador 25-11 in 10 innings (2.500 average). That was, in a field of 64 players (most of them men and lots of world class players) the best match so far played. The finish was impressive with 7-2-8-2. ,,It was really super, many players were watching: Semih, Torbjörn, Roland, Eddy Merckx, Miquel Torres, really great.''
The young Egyptian star Sameh Sidhom did the same in his match against Lloyd Wallace: he also recorded a blistering match: 25 caroms in ten innings.
But even Eddy Merckx, the current world champion (12 innings), Belgian champion Roland Forthomme (11 innings), Pan American champion Pedro Piedrabuena (12 innings) and Eddy Leppens (11 innings) could not keep up with the ladies champion in the first three rounds.
,,You missed something really good,'' Therese texted to the world tonight (2.34 Dutch time), because she played her historic match in the middle of the night in Europe time.
We had indeed. The golden girl, who made a false start and lost her first match to Michael Kang, took a bloody revenge and is back in de race now.
The summary of all groups after three matches:
Group A:
Allan Jensen leads with three wins, of which the best against Gary Eake (25-8 in 16). Second in the ranking with two victories out of three are Miguel Torres, Alfonso Torres and Karina Jetten (averages 1.246, 0.924, 0.775).
Group B:
Eddy Merckx and Luis Aveiga are undefeated, the Belgian with three wins and 1.875, Aveiga with three wins and 1.364. Best match in the group: Merckx beats Carlos Elias 25-8 in 11.
Group C:
Roland Forthomme, Gerhard Kostistansky and Mazin Shooni seem to compete for two places in the final phase. The three lead with the maximum six match points. Forthomme has 1.744, Kostistansky 1.415, Shooni 1.056. Forthomme made the best impression with matches in 11, 13, and 19 innings.
Group D:
Otto Hildenbran is the surprising leader. He is the only unbeaten player, but needed for two of his wins 42 and 38 innings. Hugo Patino, the main contender, lost one match against Young Ha Choi in 22 innings (25-24).
Group E:
Therese Klompenhouwer signed for the absolute highlight in this group with her victory in ten innings. Julian Torres tops the list with three victories and 1.103 average. Pedro Piedrabuena started with a loss against Manuel Landao, but won his next matches. Therese also has two wins in three matches.
Group F:
Javier Teran, Harry Pena and Daniel Reyes are in a head to head race and are undefeated. Teran has the best average (1.027) and also played the best match, in 19 innings.
Group G:
Sameh Sidhom played a world class match like Therese Klompenhouwer: he defeated Lloyd Wallace 25-5 in 10/9 innings. The Egyptian is leading the group, but lost one match, against Sang Jin Lee (25-21 in 25). Five other players gathered four match points like Sidhom: Joel Switala, Sun Shin, John Cristiano, Sang Jin Lee and Mike Chen.
Group H:
Eddy Leppens seems unapproachable and leads the group ahead of Carlos Palafox and Chris Bartzos, all three of them with six match points. Leppens played his best game against Jimmy Ekinci (25 in 11) and averages 1.829 after three matches. Palafox is a good second with 1.563.
Watch all the matches today (Thursday) live on Kozoom. The start off is at 9.30 (New York time).