VEGHEL - The performance of Therese Klompenhouwer, the women's world champion, at the World Cup stage in Veghel lasted only one day, but she said farewell with an unforgettable match. In front of three camera's, at the so-called TV table, the 36-year-old Dutch world star defeated a famous billiard name in her second match. Peter Ceulemans, grandson of the all time biggest billiard champion, was beaten by two rarely shown runs in women's billiards: 10 and 12. That brought her to 28-I7, two points away from the finish. For those two winning caroms, 'Terri' needed six innings: 30-27 in 13. "I was eliminated due to my first loss, but luckily I showed how well I can play billiards," she said radiantly.
On the third day of the World Cup, in the the main tournament with the entire world top among the men, Klompenhouwer played brilliantly in the first part against Peter Ceulemans in one of the last days of preliminaries. With a flawless 10 in the third, and a 12 in the seventh, there was an amazing 28-12 score in 7 innings. The young Ceulemans blinked his eyes looking at the score when he left the arena for a short break. ''I did not panic, because I won my first game and I had a big lead over Therese in average. I should not worry, even at that break score. But her start was certainly great and I knew that she can do that.''
Therese: ''I didn't have such a good start against Wesley de Jaeger and I surely was looking for revenge. But I did not expect that I would have a super start. I ran a 10 and a 12-run very quick and before I knew it, I saw the 28 on the scoreboard." The applause after the winning point, she deserved very well. Peter Ceulemans could be satisfied, because he reached the next round, Therese was happy with one of the best matches in her career.
The stylish Dane Jacob Sörensen closed the day with the best figures by far: four match points, 2,727. In his punitive expedition, he first knocked down French revelation Nathan Duriez 30-3 in 12 and in his second match Korean Sung Il Jeong 30-5 in ten innings. The other Dane this day, Brian Knudsen, who was the day winner on Monday, now finished number two with 4 points and 1,875 ahead ofPeter De Backer (4 points, 1,621), Jun Tae Kim (4-1,621) and Gwendal Maréchal (4-1,538). The most happy man of the day and the only Dutchman to continue, Jeffrey Jorissen, was beaten in his first match by a strong playing Turgay Orak (30-19 in 13), Jorissen won his second against David Pennör in 13 innings (30-13, aafter an early 19-1 lead) and escaped to the next round as the best on average due to Pennör's win against Orak (30-27 in 29).
Peter Ceulemans and Jeffrey Jorissen, both with two match points, closed the ranking of 16 group winners with four Turks (Manol Minaoglu, Gökhan Salman, Muhammed Cavusoglu and Tolgahan Kiraz) and three Belgians (Peter De Backer, Jef Philipoom and Peter Ceulemans) and the two Danes leading the ranking.
The player with the highest run of the day, Jérôme Barbeillon with 16, was the best of the numbers two with 2 match points and 1,468 ahead of Therese Klompenhouwer with 2 points and 1,382.
Tuesday's best matches:
Jacob Sörensen-Sung Il Jeong 30-5 in 10
Jacob Sörensen-Nathan Duriez 30-3 in 12
Jeffrey Jorissen-David Pennör 30-13 in 13
Peter Ceulemans-Wesley de Jaeger 30-12 in 13
Turgay Orak -Jeffrey Jorissen 30-19 in 13
Chang Hoon Seo 30-19 in 13.
The dayly ranking:
1 Jakob Sörensen 4-2.727-9
2 Brian Knudsen 4-1.875-6
3 Peter De Backer 4-1.621-8
4 Jun Tae Kim 4-1.621-7
5 Gwendal Maréchal 4-1.538-6
6 Antonio Montes 4-1.428-8
7 Xuan Cuong Ma 4-1.363-9
8 José-Maria Mas 4-1.333-7
9 Rui Manuel Costa 4-1.333-7
10 Manol Minaoglu 4-1.276-8
11 Gökhan Salman 4-1.250-8
12 Jef Philipoom 4-1.176-10
13 Muhammed Cavusoglu 4-1.176-8
14 Tolgahan Kiraz 4-1.016-6
15 Peter Ceulemans 2-2.192-9
16 Jeffrey Jorissen 2-1.84-7.
Jacob Sörensen, the best by far on Wednesday
Brian Knudsen from Denmark, two days among the best players
Peter De Backer, in top three on the day ranking
Peter Ceulemans, beaten by Therese Klompenhouwer, but moving up to the next rounds
Ahmed Emam, the excellent technical sports director from Egypt, one day at the table and out of the game